What you need to know
- The Google Stadia Team has announced a number of new features for the cloud gaming service in the Stadia Community Blog.
- New features include Family Sharing, Messaging, capture sharing on mobile and web, captures with game chat voice audio, and Stadia Profile enhancements.
- The new features are on a roll out basis, so you may not see them on your Stadia app quite yet.
Stadia, Google's cloud gaming service, may not have started on the right foot, but it seems that it's not stopping any time soon.
In the Stadia Community Blog, the Stadia Team posted a considerable new update announcing a number of new features being rolled out to the service.
According to the update, Stadia will now officially support 'Family Sharing', which allows Stadia Pro subscribers to share games with their family members. While it still doesn't let players use the same game at the same time, this was a much needed feature for a Netflix-type of service.
Another much needed feature was in-game messaging, and thankfully, it's finally coming to Stadia. 'Messaging on Stadia' allows players to send messages to one another. Of course, Stadia being a Google service, the messaging supports smart replies which are accessible using the controller.
Stadia is also expanding its capture sharing options with 'capture sharing on mobile and web,' which lets players share links of their screenshots and video clips. On top of that, captures will now include game chat voices.
Stadia may not have a huge playerbase quite yet, but Google is now giving you more options to customize your public profile. 'Stadia Profile enhancements' allow players to showcase their "owned games, friends list, and presence." More importantly, there are now shortcuts on Stadia Profiles that allow players to easily invite other players to their party.
The new features are going out on a rollout basis, so you may not see them on your device quite yet.
Stadia still needs a ton of work in terms of its general pricing model, game selection, and in many other aspects, however, it's always good to see improvements coming to the forward-looking service.
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