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Microsoft has just announced that the March system update for Xbox One is starting to roll out today. The update includes improved matchmaking, party chat, friends features, 5.1 Dolby Digital support for SPDIF (optical out), Twitch TV live streaming support and loads of other improvements.

Check out some of the new features you can expect from today's Xbox One update:

Improved Multiplayer & Party chat

• Cross title party chat
• Party chat on by default
• Easier multiplayer invites
• Easier multiplayer joining
• Ability to see what the people in your party are doing

Improved Friends List + Profile

• Improved friends list utility & speed of access
• Ability to see people you recently played games with
• See when friends are broadcasting, including live broadcast thumbnails in activity feed
• Get to a friend’s profile faster using type-ahead suggestions
• Contextual app menu actions on friends list and activity feed items
• Enabled more multiplayer (join and invite) actions on user profiles
• 54 new contest-winning gamerpics

Twitch TV live streaming support

• Broadcast gameplay on Twitch.TV through Xbox LIVE (When the updated Twitch app ships next week.)
• Voice support for starting and ending broadcast

Bringing out social in home

• See favorite friends currently online
• See friends broadcasting gameplay

Miscellaneous shell improvements

• Improved notification center experiences including “quiet mode”
• View Game Clips while in snap mode
• Protect user settings with passkey

Browser improvements

• Control Bing and Google maps with gesture and controller
• Quick search when highlighting a term on a page
• When searching from Bing search on the console, direct link to Internet Explorer in order to see additional web results.

New Devices – Driver and Firmware updates

• Firmware update to the Xbox One controller to support the Xbox One stereo headset adapter
• Support for 1st and 3rd party headsets
• Driver updates for the Xbox One Media Remote

SmartGlass Improvements

• Push notification to your device for Xbox Live messages
• Quickly see what a friend is doing including presence and recent
• Enhanced viewing of personal and a friend’s game progress and clips
• Ability to close snap from SmartGlass

Live TV

• 50Hz fix – users can set the Live TV app to display at 50Hz for full or fill modes
• Volume up/down adjustments – user can tailor the number of volume increments when using “volume up” or “volume down” commands
• IR blasting of power & volume to TVs/AVRs in all regions
• AVR setup maps to include model number for most sound bars or AVRs when setting up TV

Improved Audio output support

• SPDIF (optical out) now supports 5.1 Dolby Digital – enabling
  devices such as sound bars with only Optical In to be able to receive
  5.1 Dolby Digital from console over optical
• HDMI output now supports stereo uncompressed, 5.1 uncompressed, 7.1 uncompressed or 5.1 Dolby Digital live or 5.1 DTS