The new XBOX startup animation that Insiders first previewed in May is now a choice rather than a replacement, with today’s XBOX Insider update letting players pick which boot sequence plays when the console powers on. The options span every generation from XBOX One through the current one, and the setting lives under Settings > System > Startup alongside the existing toggle for playing the animation with or without sound.
Badges get a follow-up too. Last month’s update gave players a better look at the badges they’d earned, and Insiders can now feature up to five of them in their profile card showcase and hide individual badges from their public profile. A new local search feature rounds out the personalization side, letting players search for specific games and achievements within My games & apps, official club achievement lists, and their profile achievement history, working alongside the filters and sorting that are already there.
The bigger technical change this time around is for XBOX Remote Play. Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings on XBOX Series X|S can now stream from their console at up to 1440p with higher video bitrates on supported devices, up from the previous cap. Remote Play uses the console you already own, so there’s no subscription attached, but Microsoft notes that some devices don’t yet have separate streaming settings for Remote Play and XBOX Cloud Gaming during the test, and anyone set to Auto will get the highest resolution and bitrate their device and network can handle regardless of what the setting displays. To get the benefit, the console’s display resolution needs to be set to 1440p or 4K UHD.
On the cloud side, downloads can now continue in the background while you stream a game when network conditions allow, building on the June Insider feature that let players stream a game while it installs. Microsoft says XBOX Series X|S owners will see the biggest gains, and the setting can be turned off under Settings > Cloud gaming > Streaming preferences. Series X|S Insiders also get Voice Clarity, a background noise reduction feature that’s on by default in party chat and most games released since 2020, plus a set of behind-the-scenes party reliability and security updates that Microsoft is asking Insiders to help test. If you aren’t in the program, the XBOX Insider Hub is available on XBOX One, XBOX Series X|S, and Windows PC.
