Sony has just started rolling out the latest PlayStation 5 beta update for testers in the US, Canada, Japan, the UK, Germany, and France. It has quite a few new features and improvements, and perhaps the biggest new addition is adding Discord voice chat support. PS5 beta testers can now chat with gamers across most platforms that Discord supports.
Players will have to link both their PlayStation Network and Discord accounts together and if you are a tester, you can learn how to do that right now by going to this page on Discord"s website. After that, open the Discord mobile app or Discord on your PC to launch the voice chat on the PS5 console.
If you play with your PS5 on a TV or a monitor connected to an HDMI 2.1 port that supports 1440p resolution, the new beta release now adds Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for that display option. The beta also adds 1440p support for even more displays.
Here"s a quick summary of what else is included in the new PS5 beta:
- The beta allows players to either send a Share Screen request to a friend or to start sharing your screen directly from the friend"s profile.
- There"s a new icon in Party Chats that lets you know that you can join a game that your party members are playing.
- In the Games Hubs feature, you can see which of your friends have the game and who is currently online and playing that game.
- The new beta allows players to upload screenshots or game clips from the PS5 console to the PS App so you can share them with friends.
- The Game Library feature now lets you search for both PSVR and the upcoming PSVR2 games. You can also now sort and filter games when you add new games to a gamelist.
- The beta also adds a feature where you can pick who can join and who can invite other players to any multiplayer game that you have created.
- It"s now easier to access saved data from a PS4 game to your PS5 console. A new notification will appear when you download or install a PS4 game to the PS5, stating PS4 saved data is now available.
- If you want to transfer your data from your current PS5 console to a new one, the beta now allows you to do that with your local Wi-Fi network on a LAN connection. That includes things like games, saved data, user profiles, settings, screenshots, and videos.
- The Screen Reader accessibility feature has some new options, including telling you where your current position is in a menu and where you can move in that menu.
- Owners of the DualSense wireless controller can now update the software inside with a wireless connection.
- Finally, US and UK testers can try out voice commands for game capture. You can say, “Hey PlayStation, capture that" to save a video clip, or if you want a specific time, you can say, "“Hey PlayStation, capture the last 5 minutes." You can also say, "Hey PlayStation, start recording” to start a video clip, and then say, "Hey PlayStation, stop recording” to end it.
Keep in mind that all of these features in the PS5 beta may change when they are released to the general PS5 console audience. Indeed, some of these features may get canceled altogether.