No option to limit kinect auto sign-in to home screen? Why not?

Hey guys, just looked at the patch notes for the March update and I am very dissapointed to see a major issue being completely overlooked: kinect auto sign-in messing with games.

I think kinect auto sign-in is one of the coolest features on the xbone, but I had to disable it after a few days because it kept interrupting my games. Whether it was kinect mistakenly signing in someone when they sat down on the couch beside me or kicking
me out of a marathon survival run in Killer Instinct because I passed the controller to a friend while I went to the bathroom, it simply wasn't worth the frustration and inconvenience. This thing is supposed to make our lives easier but it is currently more
trouble than sign was on 360, at least for people with crowded living rooms who don't sit at home alone gaming in the dark.

A very simple fix: add an option in settings to only allow kinect auto-sign in from the home screen.

I literally can't think of a single reason why they shouldn't include this in an update. Can you?

:)

 

Kinect auto sign in disable?

To disable the Kinect auto-sign in feature, you need to;

1. Go to your settings.

2. Go to "Sign-in, security & passkey"

3. Select "Change your sign-in & security preferences"

4. Select the option "No barriers" to retain your current settings minus the Kinect auto-sign in.

 

Auto-Sign in on Kinect?

No worries, man, sometimes it's hard to tell if a thread applies to our question or not! To answer your question, the Xbox One does not have an auto sign-in option outside Kinect's biometric option. The fastest alternative sign in is just going to the
top of the screen where the profiles are shown, and then hitting "choose this person."

Hope this helps!

PS, with the new unbundled Kinect $399 SKU, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of MS introducing a Kinect-free auto-sign-in at some point, but not as of yet.

 

why not disable auto sign in for people?

 

You can already do this.. The whole point of swapping controller during game is to switch user, if you want to steal your friends time and gamer points is up to you to do a work round. ?

 

Thanks for the responses guys, auto sign-in is currently turned off on all of my profiles but I think it's a really good idea and I would like to use it without having it interrupt my gaming. Also, I'm not sure why you think I'm trying to waste anyone's
time and I'm sorry you feel that way f00x :/

Am I really the only person who has experienced issues with this?

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, there are 3 specific reasons why I think having an option like this would be useful:

1.) For myself, and other xbone users who I have talked to and/or read posts by on the internet, our living rooms may not be 100% ideal for kinect and sometimes it mistakenly signs someone in/out mid-game ending their session and bringing them back to the
game's main menu without saving or giving an option to keep the current profile. This can happen if someone walks in front of the tv, sits down beside you, or if the kinect's view of the controller is blocked by something like a coffee table or pet etc. If
you've never experienced this before trust me, it's super annoying.

2.) Sometimes people like to take turns while playing games. For example, whenever my friends and I play fighting games the loser always passes the controller - this is pretty common. I also like to take turns playing single player games with my girlfriend
sometimes. With kinect auto sign-in the way it is now, this ranges from completely impossible to extremely inconvenient. In Killer Instinct, for example, every time you pass the controller to someone else it boots you to the main menu and forces you to sit
through 2 load screens.

3.) Sometimes you need to take a break from playing for whatever reason (pay for pizza, go to bathroom, answer phone etc) and put the controller down, maybe even walk away from the console. Coming back to a console that has signed someone else in and ended
your gaming session really sucks.

Now, ideally it would all work flawlessly and in a game like killer instinct it would just know who's using the controller and adjust accordingly without a hitch, but it's not there yet. If there was an option to limit auto sign-in to the home screen it
would completely eliminate any chance of getting kicked out of a game that is in progress unintentionally - an option I believe is worth including in a gaming console.

The way I see it, if this option was on you wouldn't have to worry about kinect interfering with your games but you could still enjoy the convenience of being able to press the home button and have it automatically change profiles, sign new players in etc.
And if you don't like it you can just leave it off

 

I'd say you need to recalibrate your Kinect. In fact, they even say that it should be recalibrated at least a few times. Even if you wear glasses, then switch to contacts you should recalibrate because it will have a hard time recognizing you.

If it signs you out when someone walks by/enters the room, go up to your profile tile on the home screen and select it. If memory serves, selecting it will bring up several options like "sign in as", "Sign out" or something like that... but one option will
be "I wasn't recognized. select that and it will say something like "sorry about that, we'll try to better recognize you next time".

Also, I think it depends on the game somewhat as well. For example, when I play BF4, my wife can walk in front of me (between me and TV/Kinect) multiple times and nothing happens. However, we decided to get Zoo Tycoon just for something different... and
every time she would enter the room it would recognize her as me even though the controller never left my hands. However, after I recalibrated a few times... and I also stepped through the "I wasn't recognized" dialog when it did get confused, it has continually
gotten better and I've had far fewer problems.

TBH, I have my wife, 2 dogs that are constantly running in and out of the room, jumping up and laying down beside me or on my lap directly in front of the controller (read as between it and the Kinect) and a coffee table and have had zero problems with the
Kinect losing track of me... but only after I've recalibrated and doing the "I wasn't recognized" process... several times. That's what those features are there for and if you haven't tried them, I can say from personal experience that it helps.

Also, I can't see the idea of having to go to the home screen to switch profiles happening. MS actually designed the system to seamlessly switch profiles between players when a player hands the controller to someone else. They want it to work that way.

 

Ah I see, thanks for the suggestion! You're right, I haven't done that yet so that totally explains number 1 on my list. To be honest, the main issue for me is taking turns playing single-player games (such as ryse) and passing controllers with Killer Instinct
but I'm sure that would fix a lot of my friends' problems.

I guess I could just chalk it up as another way current-gen consoles are throwing local multiplayer under the bus, but I feel like if they think the current solution is "seamless" they haven't been playing their own games because that is the exact opposite
of my experience so far. Every game I have played boots you to the main menu every time you pass the controller and it has effectively forced me to disable kinect sign-in :/

Either way I feel like it would be a good option to have for the people who just don't want to take the risk that it might happen and kick them out of a game at a critical moment.