All the Things You (Probably) Didn't Know You Could Do With Your PlayStation 5

This is one of the first things you should change on your PS5 if you regularly get annoyed that you need to download updates every time you log back in. First, navigate to Settings via the gear icon on the main menu, then choose System, System Software, and finally, System Software Update and Settings. After that, toggle on Download Update Files Automatically and Install Update Files Automatically. This will allow your console to update even when the console is in rest mode, which is a great way to save time after coming back from a long stint away from your PlayStation.

Remember the PlayStation Portal? Its big claim to fame is being a remote player-only device for using your PS5 over Wi-Fi. However, any phone or PC can also act as your PlayStation remote player without much fuss.

You’ll first need to enable it on the PlayStation to set up remote play. First, go to settings, then System, and find the toggle under Remote Play.

You can download the app from PlayStation’s website on a Mac or PC. You need to download the PS Remote Play app from either the Play Store or the Apple App Store for mobile devices. You can also find this easily if you’re using the regular PlayStation app. After that, you’ll need to sign into your PSN account and link your PS5 to your device.

This will give you a direct stream of your PS5. It also brings up mobile controls on phones if you really want to use your PlayStation with a touchscreen. The better option is pairing your phone or device to a DualSense controller or looking for other mobile controller options like the Backbone One.

If you’re looking to share all your clips and screenshots outside your PlayStation, you’ll need the official PlayStation app. That if you want to share gameplay clips, you’ll need to enable sharing from the PS5 to your phone in the app itself. To do this, go to the Game Library section of the app, select Captures, and then hit Enable. Anything you took before you enabled that connection won’t automatically share over, though you can also go into the Media Gallery. Check the next slide for more information on how to do that.

If you’re uploading anything big, you’ll also want to make sure the console is connected to the internet over Rest Mode. To do this, go to Settings via the little gear icon on the home screen. Then scroll down to Power Saving and open Features Available in Rest Mode. Then toggle on Stay Connected to the Internet.

Sony’s own Share Factory app has been around for a while, but if you’ve never thought to open it up you’d be surprised how many tools and features are available to let you do a few simple edits for your clips and screenshots you take in-game. There’s a few default “Creator Packs” with a handful of graphics to intersperse among your clips. There’s also the Bits editor for creating a few bite-sized clips meant for uploading to TikTok or YouTube Shorts.

Now, Share Factory and the PS5 let you upload to YouTube directly from the console once you link your account. However, if you want to upload the files elsewhere, you’ll need to upload them to the PlayStation app. First, go to the Media Gallery, then on the right hit the button for Select Multiple. From there, select the clips you want to upload, then on the right go down to the three dots and hit the button to Upload to PlayStation App. You can also copy it to an external USB drive from this menu as well.

Okay, you likely already knew about the screenshotting feature if you ever accidentally clicked on the Share button to the left of the touch panel. However, the feature is actually quite intuitive and handy for capturing in-game content. This is mostly due to how the PS5 captures content automatically for you, then lets you record it after you did something that makes you scream, “That was cool. Goddamit, why didn’t I record that?”

Just hit the Share button, then select Save Recent Gameplay on the left. This will let you record everything you did for up to 30 minutes at most.

You don’t have to talk with your Discord friends on a separate device while you’re mucking through a cross-play session of Helldivers 2. There’s a bit of waddling you half to do before you get there. First, log in to your PlayStation account, and under Linked Services, select Discord. Sign in to your Discord account, and you’ll be ready to go.

Then, when you’re about to join a Discord voice chat on a separate device, swipe up on the bottom bar and choose the option to Join on PlayStation. From there, you’ll get a notification that you’re now on Discord from the PlayStation, and if you hit the PS button on the controller, you can see which chats you’re currently in and also leave the chat.

Most PS5 owners won’t stray from the main “Games” tab on the PS5 main screen but go up and select the “Media” tab to open up a whole range of side apps you can access on Sony’s mainline console. Here, you can download various streaming apps, but most importantly, there are options to download the two biggest music apps right now easily: Spotify and Apple Music.

You can link both to your PlayStation 5, but even better, you can quickly access each app while doing anything else with your PS5. You absolutely can if you want to listen to your favorite Rob Zombie track while culling bugs in Helldivers 2. It won’t automatically lower the in-game music, which means you’ll have to manually set it unless you want to hear the occasional weird distortion. A few titles also restrict you from playing from your Spotify or Apple Music in-game, such as Resident Evil Village.

PlayStation’s Game Help is a feature exclusive to PlayStation Plus members, though no matter if you’re on Essential, Extra, or Premium subscriptions, you should see these hints come up in some select titles. You can access PlayStation from the console when you hit the PS button or from the PlayStation App, but it essentially shows a video of different sections of the game where players often get stuck. For example, in God of War: Ragnarok, there’s a selection of walkthrough videos for different bosses and puzzles throughout the game. However, this is only really available for a few select titles. Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is the perfect kind of game to have a hints section, but there’s none available for it despite it being out for nearly a year.

Sony is upgrading the feature with Community Game Help, which should allow players to upload videos showing how they get through games to help their fellow gamers. We’ll see if this feature makes these game-help tips far more widely available.

Are you one of those folks that gets incensed over spoilers? This feature could be a big help. If you go into Settings, Saved Data, and Game/App Settings, then go down to Spoiler Warnings, the PS5 will automatically detect how far you are in each game and will warn you if you’re about to see content from friends or other players that will spoil the surprise.

This is one of the crazier ways to use your PS5, and while it might seem a novelty to some, for others with accessibility needs, it could be a major boon. It’s currently only available in English in the UK, but you should see the option in Settings under Voice Command (Preview) if you have access. After enabling it, you can do a Siri-like “Hey PlayStation” to control the console and also set it to give you more time to say your command. It’s surprisingly fast and responsive even with the default microphone on the Dual Sense controller.

Those giant fins on the side of your PlayStation 5 console are indeed just for show, but there are likely a few owners who don’t know they are completely removable and replaceable. It’s the same story for both the first-gen PS5 and the slimmer PS5. First, to remove the panel covers, grip the corner closest to the PlayStation logo and pull up and down toward the bottom of the console. The same goes for the other panel. You might need to apply a small amount of force, but it should pop out.

To replace it, slide it on from the bottom and then snap it into place. You can buy aftermarket panels from the likes of DBrand or from PlayStation themselves. We have tried out a few of the latest colorways, and you can get some interesting mixes and matches going on the slim PlayStation 5.

With your panel cover off, you also have access to one of the most hidden features that makes cleaning a PS5 of dust extra easy. There are a few channels where the PS5 fans blow dust, and they collect in two small pockets, as you can see in the picture. To remove the dust, vacuum it from the top. This is also the first step you need to take to access the inside of the PS5 to upgrade its SSD.

The secret to amazing audio with headphones on PS5 is the 3D Audio setting. It’s not enabled by default, but if you have a supporting pair of headphones like the PlayStation Pulse Elite headset, you can choose between several different 3D audio profiles. Go into Settings, then choose Sound and scroll down to 3D Audio for either your TV speakers or headphones. After that, you can enable 3D audio and adjust the height of the sound so it goes closest to your ear level. You can also set it to a different right or left speaker profile.

Do you have too many games on your PlayStation, and it’s just a pain to find them all? There’s a pretty easy way of organizing them all, including games not currently installed. First, navigate to Game Library on the main PlayStation screen, and then navigate to Your Collection on the top bar. You’ll see a small column of icons on the left, and choose the third option that looks like a folder with a plus symbol. From there, select which games you want to include on the list, then name it whatever you want and order it based on name, purchase date, or date added.

Game Sharing has been around since the beginning of the PS5, but it’s still a widely misunderstood and little-used feature despite its utility. It essentially gives any user on the PS5 access to all your games, including your PlayStation Plus titles, even when your console is no longer online. First, go to Settings, then go to Users and Accounts. In the Other panel, you should see the Console Sharing and Offline Play icon. Select it and enable the feature.

Suppose you’re tired of seeing widgets and apps control center (that being the screen that pulls up when you hit the PlayStation button on the controller) that you never actually use. In that case, there’s an option to change it so you can access music or accessibility options and finally ignore the icon for the Game Bar.

When you’re in the Control Center, hit the options button. This will let you change out different settings options you want to see on the game bar. If you don’t want to see that Game Base logo, put it under Hidden Controls. If you want accessibility options front and center, move that up. The quick Accessibility options include inverting colors, bolding text, increasing text size, and even enabling the screen reader by default. These will only work in the PlayStation menus, so you’ll need to check those settings for each game individually.

There are a few accessibility options hidden deep within PlayStation’s menus that make reassigning buttons a breeze. First, go to Settings by pressing the gear icon on the top bar in the main menu. Then go to Accessories, Controller, then scroll all the way down to Accessibility. From there, you can set Custom Button Assignments on a DualSense controller, allowing you to say your left D-Pad button is actually the left trigger, and so on.

This same screen will allow you to set the haptics on your controller. You can modify the vibration intensity and the level of force that gets applied to the DualSence’s haptic triggers.

As with controller mapping, there’s an easy way to make sure every title will have subtitles or will automatically apply your preferred difficulty from the start. First, go into Settings, then Accessories, and Game Presets. You can start each new game from here by selecting your preferred setting. This includes the ability to prefer first-person or third-person views in games that support both. You can also set it so that in online multiplayer games, only friends can join your party by default, hopefully cutting down on the number of times you start a co-op game when a rando unexpectedly joins the party.