We’ve known since April that overhauling the console experience is one of XBOX’s stated priorities, with the We Are Xbox memo calling out fixing the fundamentals across discovery, customization, and social. Today’s XBOX Insider update leans into that, giving testers more control over Home, local game save storage, and wishlists, plus a commemorative badge celebrating 25 years of XBOX. Most features hit the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings first, though select updates are available to everyone starting today.
Starting with Home, players can now remove any item from the Recent Games and Apps list at the top of the screen using the Menu button, including the Play History tile. There’s also a new immersive background mode that fades away the entire UI with a press of the right thumbstick, letting a dynamic or custom background take over until any button press returns you to Home.
Local game save management addresses a long-running blind spot, since saves are automatically backed up to the XBOX network, but a full drive can block new game progress from being saved. Insiders can now view, sort, and delete local saves that aren’t in use, either one large file at a time or all unused saves at once, through Settings > System > Storage > Manage local game saves. The feature also surfaces directly if a notification warns there isn’t enough space, and your latest saves still sync from the cloud the next time you launch a game.
Profile badges are also getting a proper detail view, showing high-resolution artwork and information about when and how each badge was unlocked, whether you’re browsing your own profile or someone else’s. Tied to XBOX’s 25th anniversary celebrations, anyone who unlocked the Day One achievement on XBOX One is receiving a new commemorative Day One profile badge starting today. The XBOX One released on November 22, 2013, and if you want to feel old, that was nearly 13 years ago.
The last change is the simplest, as purchased games are now automatically removed from your wishlist starting today. As we said when XBOX refreshed Achievements back in April, small changes like these make the console experience feel a bit more polished, and it’s been a steady year of them, with party chat recording in game captures arriving earlier this month. Anyone who wants to test the new features early can join the XBOX Insider Program by downloading the XBOX Insider Hub on XBOX One, XBOX Series X|S, or PC.
