Xbox Fans Want Underrated Xbox One Feature to Make a Comeback
Many Xbox fans dearly miss the Xbox One’s Snap feature, which allowed users to pin a second app to either side of the screen while playing games.
Many Xbox fans have expressed support for the return of Xbox Snap on the company’s current-gen Series X/S consoles. Microsoft removed the feature from the Xbox One in 2017, but even today, discussions about Snap’s utility often reignite online.
Snap was an Xbox One feature that allowed console users to pin a secondary app, like YouTube or a web browser, to the side of the screen while playing a game. Unfortunately, Snap was axed from Xbox One consoles in 2017 as part of an effort to improve system performance, as it likely ate up a chunk of RAM in operation. While Microsoft claimed that ditching Xbox Snap was necessary to free up resources on the console, many Xbox fans were disappointed by the removal as it had been a convenient tool for multitasking.
Fast-forward to today, and Snap is one of the most fondly-remembered Xbox One features. Fans in Xbox circles have been waxing lyrical about Snap for years, and another discussion about it was sparked recently on Reddit by user Joshrelates, who said they missed the feature and recalled using it frequently while “playing GTA.” This prompted a flood of responses from other nostalgic Xbox fans who also missed the ability to keep guides, maps, or even TV shows open while gaming on their consoles. They brought up nifty use cases for Xbox Snap, such as in grind-heavy games where they could stream content while mining or farming resources.
Xbox Snap Could Be Very Useful on Series X/S, Fans Reckon
Others appreciated how Xbox Snap helped with streaming by keeping chat windows visible without obstructing the main game screen. Not everyone in the discussion was familiar with the feature, though, as some admitted they had never even heard of Xbox Snap before. One user pointed out how useful it could be these days by having a YouTube picture-in-picture mode or watching a friend’s gameplay while co-playing a single-player title. Interestingly, the latter feature is somewhat present on the PS5, where players can view a gameplay broadcast from party members while playing their own game. A couple of Sony patents in recent years also hint at an expansion of the PS5’s picture-in-picture capabilities being in the works.
As for a potential return of Xbox Snap, Microsoft has given no indication that it’s working on bringing the feature to Series X/S. Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie even confirmed on Twitter back in 2022 that there were no active plans to reintroduce the Snap mode. It’s an unfortunate outcome, as Snap would likely work much better in the Xbox Series X/S thanks to their much larger RAM capacities compared to the Xbox One.
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