Microsoft adds voice messages to Xbox One

Microsoft adds voice messages to Xbox One

An old favorite feature from the Xbox 360 days, voice messages will finally be making their debut on the Xbox One with the April system update.

For the most part, Microsoft’s Xbox One was praised as a natural successor to the Xbox 360 when it arrived on the market in late 2013. The graphics were better, the console had more power, and new features like cloud storage looked poised to move gaming into the next generation. One thing lost in the transition, though, was a popular voice messaging feature from the Xbox 360 days.

According to a report from Engadget, voice messages will finally be making their debut on the Xbox One with the April system update. Now, instead of typing out messages to friends using the controller – an unwieldy process, to say the least – an Xbox One user will be able to simply record a voicemail message and send it to another user. Once the other user logs into their account, they will notice that they have a message, and will be able to listen to it as they would a voicemail message their phone.

Richard Irvin, a member of the Xbox engineering team, says that Xbox users have been requesting the return of voice messages ever since the Xbox One console launched in November 2013. It has consistently been one of the top items on the want list for many users in Microsoft’s Xbox feedback forms, and now, the team is hearing the call and bringing the feature back.

More than just resurrecting voice messages, though, Irvin and the rest of the engineering team are taking things one step further. With the new feature, users won’t just be able to send messages between Xbox One consoles, but also across console generations. That means that an Xbox One user can record a message and send it to an Xbox 360 user, and vice versa. It’s a great example of Microsoft’s willingness to still support their older consoles and to integrate them into the Xbox community, rather than only focusing on the newest and shiniest hardware.

The April update, including the new voice messaging feature, should be available to Xbox users within the next few weeks.

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