The November 2019 Xbox Update rolls out today

We’re midway through the month and as of today, November 15th, the November 2019 Xbox Update will start rolling out to all consoles around the globe. You can find out about all the new features below.

First up is the new Xbox Action for the Google Assistant, which is now available for all Xbox One users in all regions where Google Assistant is supported.

The Xbox Action allows you to control your console using just your compatible smart speaker, device, or Google Assistant app on iOS and Android.

At the moment, English is the only supported language for the Xbox Action, but more languages will be added in the future. For more information on how you can set up your Google Assistant on your Xbox One, you can read our article here.

Next up are improvements for gamertags. Back in June, Microsoft announced that Xbox’s iconic gamertag system would be changing and people can now have almost-duplicate gamertags by simply adding a numeric suffix to the end.

For example, if you want to be Gooigi but someone else is already Gooigi, you can be Gooigi#8293. This feature has been out for a while now but, with the November 2019 Update, players on all platforms will be able to see these updated gamertags.

Players can now also customise their gamertags with added support for 13 worldwide alphabets and a new display option. You can find the supported character sets below:

• Basic English
• Basic Latin
• Latin-1 Supplement
• Latin Extended-A
• Hangul
• Katakana
• Hiragana
• CJK Symbols (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
• Bengali
• Devanagari (Hindi)
• Cyrillic
• Greek
• Thai

Remember, there’s no pressure to change your gamertag unless you want to. Simple as that. Just remember that you can change it once for free and every subsequent change is $9.99.

The November 2019 Update also adds text filters, letting you decide what is and isn’t acceptable to find in your messages across Xbox Live. The four levels of filter are Friendly, Medium, Mature, and Unfiltered.

You can change your message settings by going to Settings > General > Online safety & family > Privacy & online safety > Message safety. If you receive a message that contains flagged text, you’ll see a [Potentially offensive message hidden] placeholder instead.

For extra safety, Adult Xbox accounts will have the option to see the message if they so choose. Child accounts will not.

Mixer is also getting a couple of updates – Mixer users now have the option to move the Mixer chat to the left or right side of their screens and also hide it entirely. The Subscribe button is also getting a new feature that reminds you to renew when one of your subscriptions is set to expire within a week.

Voice-to-text dictation has also been improved, with support added for more languages. Using a headset or a Kinect, you can press the View button on the on-screen keyboard to convert speech to text.

Supported languages include English (US & Canada), English (India), English (UK), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), French (Canada), French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese. Microsoft say more languages will be added in future updates.

The Xbox Settings menu has also received a small revamp in the form of making everything simpler. To quote Xbox Wire, the menu has been “condensed and reorganised”, with commonly used settings moved to the top.

Last, but not least, console setup improvements have been added. Those who buy a brand new Xbox One console will now have the option to customise their Xbox settings, including language, time zone, power settings, and more, using the Xbox App for iOS or Android while the console itself is installing the latest system update.

If the November 2019 Xbox Update has yet to grace your console, just hang tight! It’s currently rolling out worldwide, so just keep checking back to see if it’s hit you yet. Happy gaming!