Xbox One ‘Holiday’ System Update releases with new features; Details here

Yesterday Microsoft teased that the update bringing Clubs and LFG would be coming "very soon" and it turns out they meant today.

The 'Holiday Update' is rolling out across the Xbox One, Xbox App on Windows 10, iOS and Android devices and it's bringing a bunch of new features to the Xbox One (and associated devices). With the update, users will be able to experience Clubs, Looking for Group, Achievement Rarity, Group Messaging and more!

The features were tested out by Preview Program members for a while, along with Arena on Xbox Live. Unfortunately, Arena isn't ready to make it's official launch, but the rest of the new features were! Check out the details below, as per Microsoft's wording.

• Clubs on Xbox Live:

  • Clubs are gamer-created and managed groups that can help you meet people and grow communities of gamers who love the same things you do. Anyone can join or create a Club, and you’ll probably see a Club for just about everything. If you do not, creating a Club is quick and easy. As a Club member, you’ll be able to set up parties, play games, share content, and easily communicate using voice and text chat with the Club across Xbox One and the Xbox app on Windows 10, iOS, and Android devices, which is great if you want to stay in touch with your Clubs on the go, or find and join new Clubs from your phone. You can search for Clubs (or create your own) in the Community tab on Xbox One and the Clubs section on other devices, and Clubs associated with a game will be accessible in the title’s Game Hub. As a Club admin, you’ll have the tools to ensure that everyone is having a great time and help create a lively and inclusive environment.

• Looking for Group on Xbox Live:

  •  Looking for Group (LFG) helps you quickly find other players that you want to game with. It’s like posting a gaming “want-ad” to the Xbox community. You can use LFG to help complete daily quests, Achievement hunt, or even get a group together to annihilate hordes of the Swarm and DeeBees in Gears of War 4. You’ll be able to add certain requirements to make sure that you’re finding the right gamers. You can specify the game, the game mode, the language the party will be speaking, how many people you need, rules like no trash talking or casual friendly, and any other in-game requirements like level, gear or character type.

  • Here’s how LFG works: gamers can browse open LFGs and request to join the ones that they’re interested in. The LFG host chooses from the list of gamers who have expressed interest and, once the group is full or the host is ready, the host can quickly get those people into Party Chat and start playing. You can even create an LFG post for future gaming sessions up to seven days in advance!

• Achievement Rarity:

  • Achievement Rarity helps you discover just how unique an Achievement is among players of a given game. When you earn a rare Achievement, you’ll get a special notification and diamond icon highlighting it.

• Group Messaging on Xbox Live:

  • Group Messaging helps you coordinate and keep in touch with your friends and fellow gamers by sending a single group message to everyone in a single conversation. You can also add people to the group and dynamically change the conversation topic. Group Messaging works across Xbox One and the Xbox app on Windows 10, iOS, and Android devices. To help you write your messages even faster on Xbox One, a new predictive dictionary has been added which you can quick access with the right thumb stick on your controller.

• Gamerscore Leaderboard:

  • The Leaderboard now resets at the beginning of each month instead of displaying results for a 30-day rolling period.You can keep an eye on the Gamerscore Leaderboard through the Achievements tab in your profile.

• Emojis for your Xbox One virtual keyboard:

  • In addition to the existing alphabet and symbols that you can use, you’ll now be able to express your likes, dislikes and more with a host of different emojis on Xbox Live. Once on your virtual keyboard, you can get to emojis by pulling the left trigger until they show up. From there, select any emoji, or press and hold on one to see more related emoji.