Hot off the heels of this week’s PS5 Pro announcement, Sony is seeding current PS5s with a fresh update. The next time you boot up your console to play some Astro Bot, you may notice some new features and changes as well.
Welcome hub
With this update, Sony is launching the “Welcome hub,” a spot on your PS5’s home screen you can customize with a variety of widgets. You can choose to see your PS5’s total storage, the battery level for connected devices like controllers and headphones, which of your friends are online, and your various trophies, among others. Like widgets on other platforms, these UI elements can be resized, so you can choose how much of any given widget you want to see on your Welcome hub.
The best part, for some PlayStation fans, might be the new ability to swap out the background of the Welcome hub. You can pick from preset backgrounds, some with animations, or use your own photo instead. Why Sony ever dropped customizable backgrounds, I’ll never know, but this is a great addition.
Sony says the Welcome hub replaces the Explore tab for U.S. users, and that the hub will roll out in the U.S. starting today. (Users across the world will see the Welcome hub in coming weeks.) The company first started testing the feature in beta back in March.
Personalized 3D audio profiles
With this new update, you can set up a personalized 3D audio profile when wearing headphones or earbuds with your PS5. 3D audio can make the sound experience of your games more realistic, so sounds appear to resonate from where they occur in the game space.
You can run through a series of tests to set up your personalized profile from Settings > Sound > 3D Audio (Headphones). These settings are saved per user.
Remote Play
Remote Play settings are getting an upgrade: Now, you can choose which users are allowed to connect to your console via Remote Play. If you want to let friends sign into your PS5 when they’re over, and connect to it when they’re out of your home, great. If not, no problem.
You can control these options from Settings > System > Remote Play > Enable Remote Play. Here, you’ll see all the users who have access, and you can enable or disable that access via the toggles next to each name.
Adaptive charging for DualSense controllers
Sony is trying to cut down on power consumption by automatically pausing charging when your connected controllers have reached an appropriate charge level. Oddly, this feature is not available on the original PS5, reserved instead for the slimmer PS5 model and the upcoming PS5 Pro.
If you have a newer PS5 console, you can find this option in Settings > System > Power Saving > Features Available in Rest Mode, then choose Supply Power to USB Ports > Adaptive. This setting will also stop supplying power to the USB ports after a period of time if no controller is connected.
Party Share
Unlike the Welcome hub, Party Share isn’t out today. Sony says it will be rolling out over the next few weeks. But when the feature does hit your account, you’ll be able to share PS5 voice chat links on any platform of your choosing. That way, you can invite a friend on, say, WhatsApp to start chatting over a game, without needing to be friends with them on PSN.
Sony says you can create a party link by opening the voice chat card in your PS5’s Control Center, choosing Invite Players, then choosing Share Party link. This option will create a QR code, which players can open on their phone and join a party from their PS5 or PlayStation app. You’ll also have this option from the PlayStation app, in time.
How to update your PS5
Your PS5 may update automatically. If not, however, head to Settings > System > System Software > System Software Update and Settings. You’ll see Update Available if your console hasn’t installed it yet. Choose Update System Software to download and install the update.
