Xbox One Tricks You Need To Know

I know that you use your XBox One every day. You play games, you stream movies, play your music and much more. You have all of the accessories like headset’s, custom controllers and all of the latest games. But it can do a lot more than you realize. There are a lot of tips and tricks that many gamers just aren’t aware of. That’s okay. We are here to help you get the most out of your console, whether you have an Xbox One. Here are just a few of the tricks that you may not know about.

Control Your TV With The XBox One

Many don’t realize this but you can use the Xbox One’s Kinect voice commands to control your TV. To set it up, go to Settings through the Menu button, then click  TV and OneGuide Settings. Then Devices. Next, select your TV’s brand and click Next, then click Automatic. Click Send Command . If you did this right, it will mute your TV.

Make Your TV and Console Turn Off Together

Just go back to TV and OneGuide Settings and select Power Settings. Then select Xbox One turns on my devices and “Xbox Turns off” turns off my TV.

Make Game Installation Faster

These days most Xbox One games make you install onto the hard drive, even if you buy the game on a physical disc. Did you know that you can speed up your installation time? All you have to do is disconnect from Xbox Live. (Remove the Ethernet cable from the console or disconnect from Xbox Live within Network settings), Then install while offline. It will be much faster. Then re-establish your connection when done.

Disable Auto-Play

Your XBox One is set up to play a Blu-Ray automatically when you insert it by default. That’s just fine when you want it to do this, but annoying when you don’t. If you want to start your disc manually, you can disable auto-play by going to Settings > Disc & Blu-ray and unchecking the boxes that say “Play Disc Automatically” or “Resume Playback”.

Order A Pizza

This is one of the best things that your XBox One can do for you in my opinion. Using the Domino’s app from the Xbox Store, all you have to do is say “Xbox, feed me” to order a pizza. Customize your pizza with toppings, and order your sides and drinks too, then watch your pizza’s journey through Xbox’s real-time pizza tracker. Enjoy.

Add An External Hard Drive For Extra Storage

With the Xbox One S you can get up to 2TB of built-in storage, but as you know, that can be eaten up quickly. If this happens you can add more external storage at any time by adding an external USB hard drive. It’s as simple as plugging in an external hard drive into a USB port on the back of the console and you are done.

Use Your Phone Or Tablet As An Xbox Keyboard

It’s a pain to type in any text on the various login or settings screens. Or in game for that matter. Lucky for us, Microsoft has us covered. Did you know that you can use your smartphone or tablet as a wireless keyboard? Just download the Xbox One SmartGlass app on your phone or tablet and then make sure it’s connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Xbox. In the app select the “Connect” icon at the top of the screen and select your console. Now when you have to enter text on your Xbox console, a keyboard will show in the app that allows you to type easily. Very cool.

Unfreeze Your Screen

Microsoft seems to have thought of everything. If you have a ton of games and other applications on your dashboard this could lead to you getting a frozen screen. This is very annoying. Well, there’s no need to reboot. Just refresh the dashboard by hitting the left and right trigger buttons and then pressing the “Y” button while on the main screen. Solved.