- The April 2023 update for Xbox rolls out.
- The update brings carbon awareness changes to save energy and electricity costs.
- In addition, the company is overhauling the search experience with a new interface design.
Microsoft is gearing up to release the April 2023 update for Xbox Series X and S consoles with new features and improvements.
According to the official changes, the Xbox April 2023 update brings changes to save energy and reduce the carbon footprint and an updated search experience.
Xbox April update new features
In this release, the company rolls out a new active hours feature that allows you to start the Xbox Series X or S quickly during certain hours of the day while keeping the console powered down to save energy.
When using the new feature means that the console will only draw 0.5 watts when it is completely shut down instead of the up to 15 watts when in standby mode. The “active hours” feature can determine when to turn on or off the console based on your behavior automatically, but you can also adjust the settings manually from Settings.
The company is also updating the mechanism for updating the Xbox Series consoles using something referred to as “carbon-aware.” The new change will stop consoles from waking up during the nightly maintenance hours. Instead, it will allow the Xbox to check, download, and process updates during the times it knows that will result in lower carbon emissions. In other words, starting with this update, Xbox will now prioritize installing updates when more clean energy is being used (such as wind, solar, and hydro) while a the same time saving some electrical costs. (Windows 11 introduced the same carbon awareness mechanism with the release of version 22H2.)
In addition, the April 2023 update also introduces a refresh for the search experience. According to the company, the new page to search for games, entertainment, and apps has been overhauled with a new design, “gallery-style results, visible filter categories navigable with RB/LB, the option to “search on YouTube” within the Movies & TV tab, and more.”
The Xbox April 2023 update is rolling out this week to every console worldwide. However, if you can’t wait until it’s available to you automatically, you can force the update on Settings > System > Updates > Update console and tap the Start update button.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].