Guidance on Alpha Ring eligibility - 4+ years as an active Insider (Level 9)

Hello there!

If you are already in the insider program you will may be invited to the Alpha ring if you've reached the requirements! You'll need to have ~1 year + in the insider program and higher XP level. You also have to be active and give
feedback continuously, but nothing is garanteed!

If you're an Xbox Insider then you will get more updates as compared to others. Even as an insider there are 4 different rings - alpha, beta, delta and omega. Being in alpha ring will result in a lot of updates, and number of updates goes down as you reduce
your level.

If you do not want frequent updates you can unenroll from the program.

Good day!

Unfortunately, you can not select Preview Ring Alpha, if it was not awarded to you.

The various preview levels were awarded, based on your participation and feedback you provided on previous previews/betas. You can only select the rings that were awarded to you. If you are new to the insider program, you would be automatically placed in
Ring 4.

Do as much as you can within the Xbox Insider Hub, like quests, report bugs, quick polls and rate content. Additionally, stay active on the forums. As you do, you will gain XP, and will eventually promote up through the rings.

Hope this helps! Good luck on your journey to Preview Alpha!

BLADE X83

You just have to continue to be active in the program, take part in surveys, etc. but Alpha is also by invite only so you would have to wait to be invited into it by Microsoft.

How do the Xbox One Update Preview rings differ and how do I change rings?

There are four Xbox One Update Preview rings, which allow you control when and how often you will get early access to console updates. You’ll gain access to rings based on your activity as an Xbox Insider. If you’ve been invited to more than one ring, you
can switch between them from the Xbox Insider Hub.

The current Xbox One Update Preview rings are:

• Alpha – Open on an “invite only” basis and receives updates at the earliest point in the preview window.
• Beta – Open to Xbox Insiders with a Program tenure of 3 or more months and an Xbox Insider XP Level of 5 or higher. This ring receives updates shortly after Alpha.
• Delta – Open to any Xbox Insider with a tenure of 1 or more months that has reached Xbox Insider Level 2 or higher. Depending on certain edge cases where further attention is required from Alpha or Beta rings, Delta Insiders may receive
  system updates before Beta, though this is not a common scenario. Additionally, while early system updates are not guaranteed across the Delta ring, all Delta Insiders will receive the update prior to GA.
• Omega – Open to anyone and receives system updates shortly before the GA (General Availability) release.

If your friend is in the Xbox Insider Program, it might be that the Guide re-arrangement feature is currently in testing for the Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead rings. He could start the Xbox Insider App and check which ring he is enrolled in.

If he's eligible, he might have the chance to move up to an Alpha ring, but also at the risk of new stuff not working. So he should really consider if it's worth moving up to a less stable ring.

When that new feature is being released to lower rings or the general public depends on how many issues the Alpha Testers find with the feature.

Only if it's considered to run stable, it'll be released to lower rings or for general availability.