PS5 Beta Reviews: 3 Cool Things You Can Do with Voice Command

A Sony PS5 beta update officially rolled out on Wednesday, Feb 9. According to representatives, users who download the file can test out new features and accessibility settings, one of which is the PS5 voice command!

The company's Senior Vice President of Platform Experience, Hideaki Nishino, explained in PlayStation Blog that the update will introduce "new ways to personalize your console experience across party chat, Game Base and accessibility settings."

Note, however, that only PS5 beta participants in the US and UK can test the voice commands feature at the moment.

How to Use PS5 Voice Command

After downloading the update, the new PS5 feature should be present in "Settings." Users should scroll down to the "Voice Command (Preview)" section to customize the feature.

Note that the microphone needs to be turned on for the feature to work. Users can opt to either leave their mic on all the time or use a toggle button to manually activate it whenever a new command is issued.

Be warned that Sony will record voice commands for their analysis. According to their support document, "when you enable Voice Command (Preview), voice data and interactions will be collected and processed exclusively for operation, analysis, and improvement of the feature in accordance with our Privacy Policy." Fortunately, users who are uncomfortable with these conditions can opt out through settings.

3 Cool Things You Can Do with PS5 Voice Command

Sources from The Verge tested the beta features on PS5. The tester said the new update actually "works quite well" for navigating on the console's UI. When turned on, the PlayStation voice command will be activated by the phrase "Hey PlayStation."

PlayStation can follow through various voice commands which are generally categorized into three categories:

• Open applications by saying "Open [Game name]," "Open [App name]," or "Go Home."
• Search for applications by saying "Find [Game name]," or "Find [App name]."
• Control media files by saying "Pause," "Resume" or "Fast Forward."

It is worth noting that PS5 had no trouble searching for made-up video game words like "GreedFall" and "Gungeon." This should be great news for fans because it would be less of a hassle to deal with.

The tester also tried playing around vague voice commands. When he simply said the word "Persona," PS5 intuitively searched for apps and games related to it.

If PS5 finds one search result, PS5 will wait for a "Yes" or "No" command to open the file. If PS5 finds more than one result, the options will be presented in a numbered list. According to the tester, users can call on the number or command "see more" on the results.

Since the PS5 voice command is still in its beta phase, it is hard to determine how successful it would be in the future. For now, it shows a lot of potential for interested fans.