Microsoft is testing a feature that automatically mutes your speakers when you plug in headphones, fixing one of my biggest pet peeves with playing games on Xbox. The feature is rolling out to Xbox Insiders on the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring, which means it will very likely be available more broadly in the coming months.
Right now, when you plug in headphones to your controller on Xbox, your speakers stay on, too, which means if you want to have the audio just play in your headphones, you have to separately turn down the volume on your speakers. The PS5, on the other hand, handily mutes speaker audio when you plug in headphones, and I’m glad Microsoft is following suit by working on a similar feature for Xbox. The option to atuomatically mute speaker audio will appear in a revamped audio settings menu, according to Microsoft’s blog.
This new Skip-Ahead build also includes a new accessibility feature: color blind filters. “While some games implement similar filters individually, this new feature applies globally to everything on Xbox Series X / S, including all games, movies, apps, menus, etc.,” Microsoft said in its blog. “It also supports multiple forms of color blindness, and the filters can be adjusted to your preference without impacting performance, screenshots, or game clips.” The company first talked about this feature during its Xbox Accessibility Showcase earlier this month.
