Windows 10 feature 2
News

Windows 10 Game Bar will add Spotify, Gallery and Memes, Friends, Chat, and Customizable UI

37 Comments

Microsoft has announced some new features that will be coming to the Windows 10 Game Bar. According to the team, Spotify, Gallery and Memes, Customizable UI, as well as Friends, Chat, and Mixer are coming to the Windows 10 Game Bar. These features are available to Windows Gaming Insiders who can access and test them.

Going into more details, gamers will be able to easily control music and podcasts on Spotify from the Spotify widget in the Game bar, including play/pause/skip, changing current playback device, and selecting playlists recommended for you by Spotify.

Furthermore, players will be able to open the Capture widget in the Game bar menu, and take a screenshot or video. Once captured they can edit their video and add overlay text to their screenshot in the Game bar gallery.

Windows 10 gamers will be also able to customize their UI by choosing which widgets to show/hide, where they want them located, and even pin specific widgets, and they will be able to see what their friends are playing, and they can quickly text them, voice chat them, or watch their Mixer stream all from within the Game bar.

Now I’m personally not using the Game Bar but it’s pretty obvious that Microsoft is doing its best to overhaul this feature.

Microsoft did not reveal when these features will be made available to all Windows 10 users, so I’m not pretty sure whether they will be included in the May 2019 update. Speaking of which, beginning with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, users will be more in control of initiating the feature OS update.

You can find more details about the new Windows 10 update features here, though we’ve listed below the key features.

  • Download and install now option provides users a separate control to initiate the installation of a feature update on eligible devices with no known key blocking compatibility issues. Users can still “Check for updates” to get monthly quality and security updates. Windows will automatically initiate a new feature update if the version of Windows 10 is nearing end of support. We may notify you when a feature update is available and ready for your machine. All Windows 10 devices with a supported version will continue to automatically receive the monthly updates. This new “download and install” option will also be available for our most popular versions of Windows 10, versions 1803 and 1809, by late May.
  • Extended ability to pause updates for both feature and monthly updates. This extension ability is for all editions of Windows 10, including Home. Based on user feedback we know that any update can come at an inconvenient time, such as when a PC is needed for a big presentation. So, we’re making it possible for all users to pause both feature and monthly updates for up to 35 days (seven days at a time, up to five times). Once the 35-day pause period is reached, users will need to update their device before pausing again.
  • Intelligent active hours to avoid disruptive update restarts. The active hours feature, introduced in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, relies on a manually configured time range to avoid automatically installing updates and rebooting. Many users leave the active hours setting at its 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. default. To further enhance active hours, users will now have the option to let Windows Update intelligently adjust active hours based on their device-specific usage patterns.
  • Improved update orchestration to improve system responsiveness. This feature will improve system performance by intelligently coordinating Windows updates and Microsoft Store updates, so they occur when users are away from their devices to minimize disruptions.