Microsoft is kicking off 2015 with another system update preview release on Xbox One. This month, the company is bringing members of the Preview program a peek at how the company hopes to bring the Xbox community even closer together through an all-new feature called game hubs. Friends, game creators, community managers, and other fans will be able to more easily meet, talk, share content, and play their favorite games. Also, Microsoft is adding more tile transparency for custom backgrounds and a handful of updates to live TV.

Starting today, members of the Xbox One preview program will get to check out these new features first:

• Game hubs - Every Xbox One game will have a game hub where gamers can see which of their friends are playing the game, compete with their friends in game leaderboards, dive into game clips and game broadcasts, and follow the game's VIPs and top players.
• Custom backgrounds and tile transparency - Microsoft added additional tile transparency to the Home tiles to make background images more visible.
• TV updates - Microsoft is releasing a lot of updates to the live TV experience and features are being released to additional countries in preview this month:
  • OneGuide for the Netherlands - Support for OneGuide will continue in preview for the Netherlands and the missing channels for the Netherlands OneGuide listings will become available over the next few weeks.
  • TV trending in OneGuide - In the OneGuide TV listings, gamers can see which shows are trending by a "Trending on Xbox" note and associated icon. Xbox - live TV trending is based on the number of Xbox One owners currently watching that show in each country, pulled from anonymous data collected at a national level. Currently, Xbox TV trending is available to all members in the U.S., UK and Canada.
  • Live TV trending (new countries) - France, Germany, Brazil and Mexico will begin seeing live TV trending data in Xbox OneGuide.
  • Improved control of TVs, set-top boxes and audio/video receivers - This month's preview release contains updates to the IR blasting database for new models and addresses issues.
  • "Trick play" with Xbox One Digital TV Tuner - Preview members with the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner in supported countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) will now be able to see video frames when fast-forwarding or rewinding paused TV on their Xbox One consoles.
  • Live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android - Microsoft is continuing the preview of live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android devices for Xbox One Digital TV Tuner owners in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.