6. Making the Social Connection
In this chapter, you learn how to use your Xbox One console to communicate with your friends via the Friends app, party chat, and Skype.
→ Understanding the Friends App
It is incredibly easy to use your Xbox One console to communicate with your friends and socialize with them by engaging in activities together, such as playing games or watching movies. Of course, to derive the full benefit of your console as a communications vehicle, you need to have Xbox Live Gold enabled. For more on Xbox Live, turn to Chapter 3, “Examining Xbox Live.”
In this chapter, you learn different ways to communicate with your friends via your Xbox One. In addition to examining various Xbox-specific apps, such as the Friends and Party apps, you also review Skype.
Understanding the Friends App
When you access the Social tile from the Home screen, you are brought to the Friends app, from which you can manage and keep tabs on all of your friends or anyone you follow. The Friends app is also accessible from the Apps section of My Games & Apps.
When you access the Friends app, the following options are available to you:
• All—Shows all of your friends, breaking out who is currently online.
• Favorites—Lists people you’ve selected as your closest buddies so that you can find them more easily on your Friends list. These people always appear at the top of any friend listings, such as the list of Online friends (if they happen to be online) and the Friends feed.
• Followers—Shows people who you follow and who follow you. This can be a good way to keep tabs on acquaintances or even follow celebrities, provided that’s something you’re into. Individuals following you will become a friend if you add them as a friend or follow them back.
• Recent Players—Lists people you’ve recently interacted with while playing online games.
• Find Someone—Enables you to search for a gamertag and more easily locate specific players in your friends list. Once you start entering characters, people you’re friends with whose gamertag matches the characters you’re entering start appearing, so you rarely have to type out a whole gamertag when locating friends.
• My Profile—Pulls up your profile. For more about your profile, turn to the “Understanding Your Profile” section in Chapter 4, “Personalizing Your Xbox One Experience.”
• Messages—Provides easy access to the messages you’ve received.
Interacting with Friends
You can have up to 1,000 friends on your Xbox One, which is far more than you could have on the Xbox 360. Adding friends is a great way to personalize your Xbox experience and make the most of your console’s connectivity and social features. If you already have an Xbox Live account, your friends automatically follow you onto your Xbox One console when you sign in to your account, and you can immediately start interacting with them.
Add a Friend
To add friends, follow these steps:
1. Make sure you are signed in to the profile you want to add friends to. Then select the Social tile from the Home screen.
3. Use the onscreen keyboard to enter the gamertag of the person you want to add and then select Search.
4. Assuming your search finds a match, select Add Friend. (If it doesn’t find a match, make sure you’ve entered the gamertag correctly or try another gamertag.)
5. Select Don’t Show This Message Again if you don’t want to see this notice every time you add a new friend, and then select Close. Otherwise, just select Close.
Ways of Interacting with Friends
Once you’ve added a friend and are in his or her profile, several options are available to you if you want to interact with your friend or make modifications:
• Send—Selecting Send provides you with several options for interacting with your friend. You can send your friend a message on his or her Xbox (see the “Send a Message” section later in this chapter). You can also send him or her a Party & Game Invite, a Party Invite, or a Game Invite. For more on sending these invitations, turn to the “Getting the Party Started” section later in this chapter.
• Mute in Chat—Selecting this option does exactly what it describes—mutes a person in chat so that you can no longer hear him or her. Keep in mind, if there is someone you want to hear in chat but can’t, make sure this option isn’t selected for him or her. More importantly, don’t smack talk the person(s) you’ve muted because they can still hear you unless they’ve decided to mute you as well.
• Join—This option is grayed out unless the person sent you a Party & Game Invite, a Party Invite, or a Game Invite, and only the type of invitation sent is actually accessible from the menu of invitation options.
• Compare Games—This option enables you to see how you stack up against your friend with regard to the games you’ve both played.
• Favorite, Friend, Add Friend—What you see here depends on whose profile you’re viewing. If the person is already a Favorite, you have two options: Remove from Favorites and Remove Friend. If the person is a Friend, your options are Add to Favorites and Remove Friend. If you’re viewing the profile of a recent player (a stranger you recently gamed with online), you have the option to Add Friend.
• Report or Block—Selecting this option enables you to block or report someone. Blocking someone prevents the individual from making contact or otherwise interacting with you. When you report someone, you’re filing a complaint with Xbox Live because you feel the person has violated the Xbox Live Code of Conduct (www.xbox.com/en-US/legal/codeofconduct). There are specific options for reporting an offensive player name or gamertag, player picture, or voice communication; cheating; unsportsmanlike behavior; and quitting early. The Xbox Live team reviews complaints and takes action if deemed necessary; however, it’s probably wise to discuss any grievances directly with an individual before filing a complaint, particularly if they’re a friend.
Adding Favorites
If you have difficulty locating your closest buddies, be sure to add them to your Favorites so that they always appear at the top of any friends listing. You can also easily find the friends you’re looking for by selecting Find Someone and inputting their gamertag.
Send a Message
Once you have friends, followers, or recent players logged on your console, you can start interacting with them. To send these individuals a text message, follow these steps:
1. Sign in to your Xbox Live account.
2. From the Home screen, select the Social tile.
3. Locate the individual you want to send a message to and press the A button on your controller; scroll down if you need to. If you have a lot of people on your Friends list, it may be easier to use the Find Someone option and then enter the individual’s gamertag.
4. Select the Send option.
5. From the drop-down menu, select Message.
6. Use the onscreen keyboard to enter your message and select Enter.
7. Select Send.
Making Message Sending Easier
You can also send your friend a message by selecting that person’s gamertag from your Friends list, pressing the Menu button on your controller, and then selecting Send Message. If you have a USB keyboard (see the “Accessorizing Your Xbox One” section in Chapter 4) or Smart-Glass set up with a smartphone, you can more quickly and easily enter the message than with your controller. Turn to Chapter 11, “Looking Through the SmartGlass,” for more on SmartGlass.
Learning About Your Friends
It can be easier to converse with your friends when you have a better idea of what they’re into. The Friends app makes this task easy, as it enables you to learn more about your friends’ activities. Here’s what you can see when in a friend’s profile (or anyone else’s for that matter) when you scroll to the right, provided he or she has been active on the console (if not, some of these may not be available):
• Recent Activity—This area shows you which activities your friend has recently engaged in. Select an activity to learn more details, such as how long your friend has engaged in the activity, his or her progress, and the achievements received. If your friend has not engaged in any activities, you won’t see this information. Also, there are some activities for which you won’t be able to get more details.
• Game Clips—Here, you can watch game clips of games that your friend has played. Once you finish watching a clip, the following options are provided: Replay, if you want to watch the clip again; Play This Game, if you want to obtain the game; Show Profile, if you want to see your friend’s profile; More Clips from This Creator, if you want to see more of your friend’s game clips; and Upload Home, if you want to go to your Upload Studio.
• Friends—See the people your friend is connected with. If you see someone you want to connect with, select that individual to access his or her profile, and then select Add Friend.
Getting the Party Started
Parties enable you to chat with your friends through your Xbox One console and play online games together. You can do this with just one friend or with up to seven friends; so up to eight microphones can be active at any given time. In addition, to start or join a party, you and your friends must have an active Xbox Live Gold membership and be signed in with the gamertag associated with that membership.
You can send your friends three different types of party invitations: a Party Invite, which invites them to chat with you; a Game Invite, which invites them to play a game with you; and a Party & Game Invite, which invites them to both chat and game. When a friend accepts your party invitation, his or her chat is turned on by default, so he or she can immediately start chatting with you. And if you’ve invited your friend to a game, he or she is taken right to the multiplayer setup for that game, enabling you and your friends to start gaming together.
Send a Party Invitation
You can only send party invitations to people who are currently online. To send a party invitation, follow these steps:
1. From the Home screen, select the Social tile.
2. Select the friend you want to invite to your party. You’ll be able to invite others to the party once the invitation is sent.
3. Select Send, and then select Party Invite. (If available and desired, you can instead opt to send a Party & Game Invite or a Game Invite; for more on this, see the “Invite a Friend to a Game” sections later in this chapter.)
4. Your party invitation has been sent and is awaiting the invitee to join. In the meantime, if you want to invite additional people, select Invite to Party and proceed to step 5.
5. Select the other friends you want to invite and then select Party. Those people are now invited as well.
Chatting Through Kinect Versus a Headset
When you have a headset connected, you can’t chat through Kinect, as the console assumes that you want that audio to be private and automatically turns off Kinect chat audio.
Joining Parties
Once you have a pool of friends, you’ll undoubtedly be invited to Xbox Live parties. You can accept these invitations in numerous ways:
• Look for party invitation pop-ups—When you see a party invitation notification appear at the bottom of your screen, briefly hold the Xbox button to accept the invitation.
• Check your notifications—The Notification mini-tile appears at the very top of the screen to the left of the Gamertag mini-tile. When you select it, you’ll see if you have any party invitations. If so, you can opt to join any active parties by selecting that party so that Launch is shown and then pressing the A button on your controller. Keep in mind that expired parties may still be listed.
• Check your friend’s profile—When you’re in a friend’s profile, you can see whether he or she is in a party. If so and you’d like to join it, you can do so by selecting the In a Party tile.
Invite Friends to a Game from the Home Screen
If you want to game with your friends, you can send them a game invitation. Of course, only players who actually have the game can participate in the game. There are two ways to do this, one of those is from the Home screen, as in the following steps:
A More Specific Example
To see exactly how this process works, using the game Killer Instinct as an example, see the next section.
1. Select and launch an online multiplayer game to play with your friends, keeping in mind that only friends who own the game can participate in the game.
2. Press the Xbox button to go to the Home screen and select the Party tile. If it doesn’t appear on the Home screen, go to the My Games & Apps tile and select it from there.
3. Select Invite to Party.
4. Select the people you want to invite to the party and then select Game. When you go back to the game lobby, your friends should now be able to join in the game.
Invite Friends to a Game from in the Game
Now let’s look at how to send a game invite from within a game. This process varies from game to game, so this example is based on sending an invite using Killer Instinct. Follow these steps:
1. From the main game menu, select Online Multiplayer.
3. Select Host/Invite. The game now creates a lobby for you.
4. Select the people you want to invite and then select Game.
5. Your game invitation has now been sent. Once your party arrives, the games can begin.
Want to Know More About Killer Instinct?
Killer Instinct is a button-mashing fighting game that you can download for free. To learn more about the game, see its description in “Perusing Digital-Only Games” in Chapter 5, “Getting Your Game On.”
Keeping in Touch via Skype
Skype is what is commonly referred to by technophiles as a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service. As such, you can use Skype to communicate with friends, family, and other persons via voice chat, video messaging, and instant messaging over the Internet. If the individual you’re communicating with is on Skype, which is available on a slew of platforms, voice and video chatting are free. If the person doesn’t have a Skype account, you can still call his or her mobile or landline; however, this has costs, though they’re likely considerably less expensive than using a landline. For more information on the available Skype plans, features, and costs, visit www.skype.com/intl/en-us/prices/.
And here’s what’s really cool about Skyping on your Xbox One: Because Skype is now owned by Microsoft, your Xbox One is optimized to make the best use of this service. Not only does a Skype tile come preinstalled on your console, but your Kinect’s capabilities make for an ideal Skype-on-TV experience.
Set Up Skype
Although a Skype tile comes preinstalled on your console, you still need to install and set up your Skype account. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Pins area of the Home screen and select the Skype tile; unless you unpinned Skype, this is where you’ll find it.
2. At the Skype App Details screen, select Install.
3. Once Skype is installed, select Launch.
4. If you already have a Skype account, select Sign In. If you don’t already have a Skype account, select Join.
5. Enter all the required information using the onscreen keyboard. If using a previous Skype account, go to step 6. Otherwise, proceed to step 7.
6. Select Link Accounts to link your Skype account with your Microsoft account.
8. Decide whether you want to receive Skype notifications. We recommend that you allow them to ensure you never miss a call or message. You’re now in Skype!
Look for Microsoft Skype Specials
During the launch window of the Xbox One, Microsoft gave Xbox Live Gold subscribers an added bonus of Skype Premium for free for 6 months, enabling group video calls and 100 minutes of telephone calling to some 60 countries. Although this offer expired in March of 2014, be sure to keep your eyes open for similar offers. With Microsoft owning Skype, it is likely that other bonus offers will be made available to new console owners in the future.
Examining the Skype Interface
After you successfully log in to your Skype account, you see the application screen, which contains the following elements:
• Profile icon—Select this icon to access your profile. From the profile screen, you can edit your profile message, which is the message people who view your profile see; change your Skype status, whether you want to be available or invisible (if you don’t want anyone Skyping you); add money to your Skype account; and adjust your privacy settings.
• Phone icon—Select this icon to make a call. It pulls up a menu to enter a phone number and to access your contacts.
• Recent—See recent activity/messages you’ve received, including invitations to connect. Skype now saves up to 1,000 messages, ensuring you don’t miss an opportunity to connect with your friends and family.
• Favorites—Any people you’ve listed as Favorites on your Friends list and who have Skype appear here.
• People—Here, you’ll find your Skype contacts. When you go to the full listing by selecting the More icon, you can see who is available to chat by selecting the Available option at the top of the screen.
Make a Voice and Video Call
Making Skype voice and video calls via your Xbox One is as easy as pie. Just follow these steps:
1. Sign in to the Xbox Live account you want to use to make the call and then select the Skype tile.
2. Select the Phone icon on the left side of the screen.
3. Enter the phone number of the person you want to call or select View Contacts and then select the person you want to call.
4. Select Voice Call or Video Call, depending on which type of call you’d like to make.
5. Skype will now try to connect your voice or video call.
• Using your controller—When a call notification appears onscreen, press and hold the Xbox button on the controller to view the incoming call details. A window then pops up from which you can select Answer or Answer Without Video, depending on your preference. If you don’t want to accept the call, select Close.
• Using your voice—When a call notification appears onscreen, say either “Xbox, answer” or “Xbox, answer without video.”
Send a Text Message
If you don’t feel like chatting but want to communicate with a contact, you can easily send him or her a text message. To send a text message, follow these steps:
1. From the Skype interface, go to People and select the contact you want to correspond with. If you have many contacts and don’t see the contact you want, select the More icon to access your full list.
2. Scroll to and select the Emoticon icon. (Once you start typing, you can’t add an emoticon. If you don’t want to add one, select the Type a Message Here field and skip to step 5.)
3. Select the emoticon(s) you’d like to include from the menu and then press B.
4. Select the message area and enter a message using the onscreen keyboard.
Easier Typing
If you have access to SmartGlass (see Chapter 11) you can use it to more easily enter your message.
5. Select Enter on the keyboard when you’re ready to send the message.
6. Your message now appears. Press B to go back to the main interface or continue to type additional messages.
