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With a long-awaited PS5 system update rolling out to users in the US and UK today, we're finally getting some much needed revisions to the PlayStation 5 user interface and user experience. A new generation of hardware will typically involve a bit of a learning curve, as players work to acclimatize to changes in navigation and functionality. That's been felt keenly after seven years spent with the PS4 UI – it wasn't perfect, but at least it got out of your way.
As much as I have enjoyed my time with the PS5, I can't say that I necessarily feel all that comfortable navigating it from a system level. Before the PS5 update, the home page was a bit of a mess, tracking Trophies was more confusing than it needed to be, and the Game Base and Control Center functionality could have done with a little tightening up. It still can. But while this new PS5 software update only takes minimal steps to ease some of these points of friction, it is a step in the right direction.
"Hey, PlayStation!"
Let's start with the biggest addition: PS5 Voice Command support . It has arrived in beta form for those of you in the US and UK, giving us the ability to open games, apps, and settings, and control media playback, with little more than a sprightly "Hey, PlayStation!" shouted in the general direction of your DualSense controller. That's the idea, at least. The theory is solid, although the execution is, well… there's a reason it's still in beta.
Your mileage may vary here depending on your dialect, but I'm fairly convinced that Voice Commands on PS5 don't agree with accents outside of North America. While a "Hey, PlayStation" or a "What can you do for me?" callout will trigger a reactive white circle in the top left of the dashboard, denoting that the PS5 is listening, I am struggling to get it to respond to any of the three PS5 Voice Command types with any consistency.
There's "Open" for 'Game name', 'App name', and 'Go Home'; "Search" for 'Game name' and 'App name'; and "Media Controls'' with 'Resume', 'Pause', and 'Fast Forward' functionality. I dread to think what my neighbors must think, to hear me desperately pleading with the PlayStation with increasing frustration to load Fortnite, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Spotify, anything.
I'm going to keep at it. When signing up for PS5 Voice Commands in the System Settings menu, some preamble text does explain that "Voice Command [preview] is an ever-learning assistant that gets smarter every time you use it" so perhaps it'll become more responsive over time. Sony wouldn't be the first company to claim something similar (claim being the operative word there), so I'll be keeping the functionality active in the meantime to see if it improves.
PS5 UI enhancements
While Voice Commands on PS5 is a headline addition, it's worth focusing on the new PS5 UI features, many of which are long overdue. For example, you can now filter your game collection by genre, making it easier than ever to sift through your library of games – particularly useful, if you've been habitually buying digital games and downloading every new addition to PS-Plus for years.
You can also permanently pin up to five games and apps on the home screen – press the options button over a tile and select 'Keep in Home' – which is functionality many have been desperate for since launch. This is especially useful now, as the number of games and apps you can have on the home screen has expanded from 9 to 11. These are small changes, but it shows that Sony is listening to feedback from the community and working to improve the base design of the PS5 UI – even if it is taking a little longer than many would otherwise like.
I'll need to sit with the changes to Trophies for a little while, but the revision may get to the root of problems that existed before. Namely, they were difficult to access and parse, presented strangely, and for some reason you couldn't open them quickly from the Control Center menu. This PS5 software update doesn't address all of these problems, and arguably hasn't gone far enough, but it's a step in the right direction. It's now easier than before to access a full Trophies list while in-game, right from the Control Center, while the tracker has been expanded to make it more useful.
And lastly, perhaps my favorite of the changes in this update is to Game Base. Not only are we now able to start open and closed parties (letting your community of friends gather together more organically, should you want them to), but the Game Base menu has now been divided into three tabs: Friends, Parties, and Messages. It's a lot cleaner and more intuitive.
From here you can create groups, more easily accept and decline friend requests, seamlessly share messages, images, and video clips, and even see when somebody is on-air with screen share. It's a really solid shift for Game Base, and indicates that Sony is open to expanding this functionality in the future. Overall, this PS5 software update is solid. It works to expel some of the friction from the user experience and highlights how the UI may evolve over time in tandem with the needs and wants of the playerbase.
