It was at the E3 2017 that Xbox announced that they would be revamping their Xbox Live Avatar system and give users more customization options. They have finally delivered their service on 18th June 2018, the details can be found on Xbox Wire’s official account. The update would be going live for Alpha and Alpha - Skip Ahead Xbox Insiders. After the update finally goes live, Insiders will finally be able to access the beta Xbox Avatar Editor from the Insider Content Tab under Xbox Insider Hub.

Users will find new categories that are more comprehensive when it comes to body gesture because they will include a wide range of body types and gender agnostic clothing. They will also include several items and accessories such as fingernails, makeups, nose rings and facial gestures.

All the items and accessories can be customized further to support over 16 million color options.  Microsoft wanted to give players the most authentic avatar creating experience, and this will allow them to go one step further. The Photobooth feature will allow users to pose their Avatar against different background colors to create the ideal portrait. A wide variety of emotions can be used to depict the current state of an Avatar’s mood, including portraying happiness, sadness and anger.

Perhaps the coolest feature that most users find interesting is the use of prosthetic limbs which give cybernetic touch to the Avatars.  

Xbox goes one step further when it comes to representing yourself in front of your friends. You can choose to create several variants of your Avatar to appear differently among different friend circles.

While the reception among users is good, it isn’t what Xbox expected it to be. Users complain that Microsoft has been wasting their resources instead of creating more exclusives. Many others appreciate the fact that they have more options to fiddle around with.

Microsoft is sending out invitations to users that are on the lower rings of the Program including Beta, Delta and Omega. Users are shortlisted based on the quality of the feedback they provide. Just like the Windows Insider Skip Ahead Ring, there is a limit to how many invitations are sent.

This means people will have to sign up as soon as possible if they want to be among the first to use Redstone 5 which is due out this fall. In order to qualify to receive an invitation, users will have to submit feedback through the Xbox Insider Hub.

Users can determine whether they’ve been selected for “Alpha – Skip Ahead” by going through the following steps:

• Launch the Xbox Insider Hub
• Navigate to the Insider content tab
• Select the “Xbox One Update Preview”
• Choose “Manage”

A lot of YouTubers are already experimenting with the endless possibilities they have with the new avatars. An in-depth review can be found on the YouTube channel by the name of “Scratch Plays’, it is over 18 minutes long and takes viewers through the entire process.