Microsoft seems to be planning to soon introduce external drive support to its latest gaming console, the Xbox One, a feature that has been said to be on the company's cards for a while. The anticipated feature is evidently being tested, as a confirmed Xbox One developer has released a screenshot showing the external storage in action.
The unnamed
Xbox One developer posted the
screenshot of the external storage feature on Reddit. The screenshot shows 'External Drive' mentioned on the Xbox One's game listing screen. The small pop-up box also suggests the external hard drive can open via voice command as it mentions
Hold X (Xbox icon) or say Xbox Launch. At the side of the screen, we also see an indicator which tells by how much of the disk has been used, and by much space is free on the drive.
The Xbox One system update with the feature is yet to reach the general users. There is also no indication as to what kinds of external drives will be compatible with the console, and what other features the update will bring.
The expected Xbox One system update for external storage usage will no doubt be a big relief for gamers, as the console includes just 500GB of built-in storage, which could get filled up pretty fast when taking into account that most AAA titles nowadays are 50GB. Sony PlayStation brought the same external USB storage feature as a part of their
v1.70 update in April.
It is being speculated that the Xbox One system update bringing the external storage support will arrive only after the
update the firm teased earlier this month. It is of course possible the teaser did not include this feature, and it may be included in the same update. The teased Xbox One update will bring a new 'Sound mixer' feature that will enable users to control the audio levels of two applications which are being used in the Snap feature and determine which app's sound is louder. The same section would also let users control the
Kinect voice chat volume. Both features would be accessible under the 'Settings' option.
Additionally, the users can opt-in to a speech collection data programme, an optional feature, providing voice samples to make the console responsive to more voice commands. One can find this feature under
Settings>Privacy & Online Safety>Customizing privacy and online safety>Share Voice Data>Allow.