PS5 shortcuts and features you haven’t discovered yet: listening to music from USB, voice recognition, and more

You already know some of the features of the Sony PS5, but…you’ll be surprised by other options and shortcuts hidden in the new PlayStation console. Listening to music from a flash drive? Writing using your voice? Find out how to do it on PS5…

PS5 is now available in many countries, after a tremendously successful launch last Thursday 19th, together with an announcement with celebrities such as Rubius or Josep Pedrerol, collapsed online shops, or great exclusive games such as Demon’s Souls Remake and Spider-Man Miles Morales.

The new Sony console has a completely new interface compared to the PS4, with a host of functions, shortcuts, and tools that we have been telling you about. But PS5 is a box of surprises, and it has other functions that we haven’t told you about yet…

And if you don’t already own a PS5, you can read our report on the top 40 questions that come to mind with the new Sony console, to convince you to make the leap to the PlayStation next-gen. Discover what other features and shortcuts PS5 hides…

Shortcut to search on PS5

PS5 allows us to use some tricks to avoid going through tabs and menus in its interface. If we want to search for a game or application, we can cut the way with the following.

If we press the triangle button on the DualSense controller, the cursor will automatically be placed on the upper search bar. This is also a useful way to access the PS5 configuration and settings menu with a single button press.

Listen to music and podcasts while you play

One of the best features of PS5 is being able to listen to our favorite tracks or Spotify podcasts while we play, which is very useful for a few games of FIFA 21 or a Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War online.

To do this, the first thing we need to do is download the official Spotify app from the PS Store. Then, if we click on the PlayStation button on the DualSense, we can open the application and select which tracks, playlist, or podcast we want to listen to.

While playing a title on PS5, pressing the PS button will show you how Spotify is running in the background, so you can change tracks or podcasts without any problem.

Managing free space from the PlayStation mobile app

PS5 is connected to the official PlayStation application for iOS and Android, which is a simple and fast way to manage some aspects of the console. It is possible to manage the games installed on our PS5 or download content remotely.

If we want to remove a game or application from our mobile, we only need to have PS5 in standby mode and from our smartphone select the PlayStation app. From there we can install games, uninstall them and manage the free space of the SSD of the console.

Switch between the Games and Multimedia tabs

PS5 has a quick shortcut to switch between Games and Multimedia, which is very useful for changing tracks on Spotify, taking a break from our vices with a series or film, or watching a guide on YouTube.

With the L1 and R1 buttons on the DualSense controller, you can switch between the two tabs quickly and easily. It’s a shortcut that bypasses but is there and saves us from having to go back to the Home or go through other tabs on the PS5 interface.

Watch videos and listen to songs from a Pendrive

PS5 allows us to connect any UBS 3.0 device to one of its external ports, such as, for example, a Pendrive. Listening to music or watching videos on PS5 from a Pendrive is very simple, we will explain it to you.

We must connect our Pendrive to one of the PS5 USB ports, and select Media Gallery from the console menu. If our USB device is correctly formatted, all its contents will appear on that tab. However, our songs or podcasts must be stored in a root folder such as MUSIC, and the same applies to videos.

We can run these multimedia contents from the Pendrive itself or pass them to the PS5 SSD disk. If we do this we will only have to access the gallery to see all our music and videos.

Edit and modify screenshots

The ”Create” button on PS5 works very similarly to that on PS4, but we can now also edit screenshots or video clips. This is very useful if you want to share this content with your friends or via social networks.

If we access the Multimedia Gallery, we will see all our screenshots. Click on the options button in one of them and select edit. You will be able to cut it out, add text, modify its dimensions, and other options.

Automatic microphone muting

The PS5 DualSense controller comes with a microphone (or speaker, depending on the function) to communicate in our online games, but many times this can be a problem. Or maybe we don’t want to play online for a season and prefer to turn it off.

PS5 allows you to mute this microphone by default so that when you log in it is off. To do this you will need to go to Settings / Sound / Microphone and select the option ”Mute” in the section ”Microphone status at login”.

Deactivate the music on the PS5 interface

The PS5 interface has been completely revamped from PS4, and features some sounds and background music, to make the browsing experience more enjoyable. However, you can mute it if you like, to immerse yourself more in your console’s games and applications.

To do this, go to Settings / Sound / Music on the home screen and disable this option. In this way the PS5 interface and menus will not have background music, being totally silent.

Automatically install your PS4 games on an external hard drive

One of the most useful features of PS5 is being able to select by default where we want our PS4 games to be installed, thus saving space on the SSD. It’s possible, and it’s also very easy to do, we explain

If you have a PS5 compatible external hard drive connected, go to Settings / Storage / External storage and select the option ”Always install PS4 games on external storage”. This way, all PS4 games that we install on PS5 will go directly to the external HDD, and not to the internal SSD of the console.

Write with your voice

PS5 has a voice recognition system, which allows you to send messages or use the keyboard via the microphone of the DualSense controller. If you want to send messages more quickly and easily, using this tool is a must.

This can be done by simply pressing the microphone button during the conversation, and automatically the PS5 microphone will detect your words and adapt them to text, and you can complete words by pressing the R1 button with the auto-complete function.