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Social media comes to Xbox Live.
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The front page of Facebook on Xbox Live
For the better part of the decade, Microsoft’s Xbox Live service has connected millions of gamers all over the world. Starting this November, social media will come to your living room via Xbox Live in the form of Facebook, Twitter, and social internet radio platform Last.FM. I got a chance to preview the update before the masses and see if our favorite social media sites hold up and have a place in the living room. All you need is a Facebook account, a Twitter account, and a Last.FM account (all free) and an Xbox Live account, which usually runs about $50 for a year.
First up is Facebook. Once you log in, you are immediately greeted by your news feed, just like Facebook on a browser. But, it does not look like Facebook. It is presented in a series of tiles going horizontally on your screen. The screenshot on this post gives an idea of how it looks. On another section, you can link your Gamertag, which is Xbox Live’s version of a screen name, and your Facebook profile. Once the update rolls out completely, it will be very easy to see which of your Facebook friends is on Xbox Live as well, giving you more people to play with. The best part is the photo section. You can launch a slideshow with one button touch, and the photos fill the entire screen.
Next is Twitter. This app is much simpler than Facebook. It refreshes in real time with status updates and can even manage multiple accounts. From here it is easy to favorite tweets, and reply to them as well. The interface looks very clean and simple, just like Twitter itself.
Lastly, on the social media front, there is Last.FM. It performs very similarly to how the browser version works. You type in an artist, it plays music from that artist as well as music from similar artists, and through telling it which songs you like or hate, you create custom radio stations. On the Xbox, pictures of the artist hit the screen and you hear your music through the best speakers in the house: your home theater.
As cool as these apps all are, there are a few downsides. First, unless you have Xbox’s chatpad, typing updates on Facebook and Twitter is a chore since you have only the onscreen keyboard. You can remedy that by using a USB keyboard plugged into the front of the Xbox, but seriously, who wants to put the controller down? Second, the absence of a browser on the Xbox makes clicking on the Facebook and Twitter links your friends put up useless. Finally, you can’t listen to Last.FM while playing a game.
All in all, the possibilities are limitless to what social media on Xbox can do. Tweeting achievements, broadcasting what you’re playing, and more are just some of the ideas that are getting thrown around. There’s a lot of fun to be had by all with this update. Happy gaming!
You can contact Adam at AdamBlank.SocialMediaGuru@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @SocmedGuru.
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