Sony is working on an update to the PS5’s operating system. The main novelty takes the form of a voice assistant to control the console.
Like all modern consoles, the PlayStation 5 evolves over time in order to offer increasingly refined ergonomics. In a press release published on February 8, 2022, Sony formalized the new features that will soon arrive in the product interface, which is difficult to find. Among them, there is one that stands out: the integration of a voice assistant, “Hey PlayStation! “.
First, “Hey PlayStation! will only be available to English-speaking users with accounts located in the UK or US (provided they agree to participate in the beta). “We’re only in the early stages of this feature and we’ll be listening carefully to your feedback throughout the beta phase,” warns Sony. For the moment, no one knows when “Hey PlayStation! will be available in France.
“Hey Playstation! » arrives to improve the ergonomics of the PS5
To use voice commands, you will of course have to activate the feature in the settings. Then, users will only have to say the phrase “Hey PlayStation!” followed by an action to perform (find and launch a game/application, manage a few settings or control playback when watching a movie). Note that there is no need to connect a microphone – or a camera – to the PlayStation 5 to take advantage of it, since the DualSense controller includes one.
The PS5 will not become the first console compatible with voice commands. The PlayStation 4 already offered it by simply saying “PlayStation”. Within the Xbox ecosystem, it is also possible to control by voice thanks to the Kinect camera (incompatible with Xbox Series S or Xbox Series X) or via a third-party voice assistant (Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant). With his “Hey PlayStation! Sony is making the feature more accessible by getting closer to what the benchmarks do.
Otherwise, the next update of the PlayStation 5 will bring together several improvements for the interface. We note the possibility of pinning five games / applications on the home page (out of a total of 14 displayed at the same time), a new search option (by genre) or the redesign of the Trophies tab.