12 Xbox One Tips and Tricks Everyone Should Know

If your holidays were extra good to you, you might be sitting in front of a shiny, brand-new Xbox One. Awesome! But what if you were previously a PlayStation user, a Nintendo loyalist, or maybe you’re brand-new to console gaming completely? Perhaps even an overwhelmed 360-upgrader? Rest-assured, Twinfinite is here to help you level up!

Make the most out of your Xbox One experience with the following handy tips and tricks!

Xbox Live

When you first set up your Xbox One, you’ll find out about Xbox Live.  This is the name for the service that allows you to access the system’s online content – such as streaming video and music, connecting with friends, downloading updates, and much more.

While the basic Xbox Live package is free, if you want to access some additional features such as online multiplayer, live broadcasting, and media sharing, you’ll need to sign up for Xbox Live Gold.  Microsoft has added a lot of incentives to sign up for this, however, including 2 free games per month via their “Games with Gold” program. This applies per platform, so if you also have a 360, that could be up to 4 games a month. You can also get discounts on purchases in the Xbox Store, and access to Cloud Storage space for your games.

In addition, all future Xbox 360 Games With with Gold titles are backwards compatible. To get them on your Xbox One, you can either add them to your account from an Xbox 360, or a web browser, just not directly from the Xbox One marketplace.

Xbox Live is priced at $59.99 for a year.

External Hard Drive Support

While the 500GB/1TB of space (depending on your model) that comes with the console seems like a plentiful amount, the fact that all games require an install on the system to play can make that space fill up fast.

Luckily, the Xbox One allows for the use of up to 2 external hard drives at once, so adding additional space is no problem at all.  The minimum requirements are at least 256GB of storage, and USB 3.0 compatibility.

Xbox Smartglass App

Microsoft has an app available called “Xbox Smartglass,” which has numerous features to enhance your Xbox One experience using your smartphone or tablet.

Among the features that the app provides is the ability to use your phone as a keyboard – this means no more selecting letters one-by-one through the controller when entering text! You can also use the app to navigate the dashboard, pause content, record video clips of your game, and more.

Note that there are two versions of this app, one for the Xbox 360 and the other for the Xbox One – so make sure you’re downloading the right one.

Access your save files on any Xbox One

When you’re connected to Xbox Live, all of your save data automatically uploads to the cloud. What this means is that if you’re at a friends’ house and want to access your save files, as long as they have the system and the game, you simply need to log in your account to continue your progress. It’s today’s answer to bringing your memory card over to a friend’s house.

Xbox One Fitness

If you’re a Kinect user, there might be a hidden feature you’re not aware of.  If you do a search for “Xbox Fitness”, you’ll come across a free “game” that gives you workouts to perform.  Fitness is fully customizable to fit your workout needs, and uses the Kinect sensor to track your progress and monitor your pulse.

Obviously you’ll need a Kinect to use this feature – and you will also need an Xbox Gold subscription.

Xbox Snap

With Xbox Snap, you can move an app to the side of your screen, where you can use it simultaneously with whatever you’re doing on the main part of your screen,  So say you’re playing a game and you want to pull up a video walkthrough of a particularly challenging area, just snap a video service to one side of your screen and you’ve got a side-by-side comparison.  You can access this feature by using your home button to take you to the snap center, or by the voice command “Xbox, snap ___ (name of app)”.

Change your Avatar

You can create your own custom avatar to represent you in the Xbox world – this is the character your friends will see when they search for you or view your profile. You can edit everything from hairstyle to clothing, many unique items can even by won by completing certain milestones in games. If you’re coming from the 360 generation, you may want to look here for further details, as setting up an avatar on Xbox One is a bit more complicated than it was on the 360. 

Side Panel

The side panel is a useful tool to access many key features.  To access it, simply double-tap the Xbox button on your controller, and a menu will pop up on the left side of your screen that will show up and allow you to access your profile, achievements, friends list, messages, notifications, settings, and the previously mentioned snap center.

Take a Screenshot/Record a Video

Taking a screenshot from the Xbox One is very simple – but unlike the PS4, there’s no designated button to do so. If you don’t know where to find the function, here’s how: While playing a game, open up the side panel, and press Y to take a screenshot or X to take a video.

Backwards Compatibility

One of the unique selling points of the Xbox One was the ability to play select 360 games on the new console – “backwards compatibility.” This list is ever-growing, as Microsoft is working to expand the library of games that are playable.  Best of all, there is no additional cost to do so.  If you already own the game or have previously downloaded it on another system, just insert the disc/re-download, play and go.

For a full list of titles currently compatible, click here.

Achievement Help

Struggling with a particularly frustrating achievement? We all know how to do a quick search or ask a friend for help, but Microsoft has made this just a little simpler.  From the achievements menu, when looking at an individual achievement, you can choose the option “Search for achievement help”, and a browser window will pop up with a pre-loaded web search with the game and achievement name.  Very handy if your phone or computer isn’t immediately accessible.

Game Streaming

If you own a PC with Windows 10 installed, you can use your PC as a second screen. This is great for situations where the TV your console is attached to is otherwise tied up. Just enable the option in settings, make sure you’re signed on to the PC with the same gamertag you use for Xbox, and have both units connected to the same network. Now you can game from both your PC and system!

That about wraps it up for our Xbox One tips and tricks.  Anything we missed?  How do you like your Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below!

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This post was originally written by Anthony Galleran.