Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

6 hidden PlayStation 5 settings you need to know about

The PlayStation 5 has been the most successful of the two new current-gen consoles, amassing 20 million console sales in under two years. And with major games like The Last of Us Part I and God of War: Ragnarok on the horizon, more people are bound to pick up Sony’s latest system. The PS5’s unique features, like adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and activity cards, are well-known at this point. However, the PS5’s UI and settings menus are a bit more complex than those on a system like the Nintendo Switch. As a result, there a quite a few PS5 features that most of its userbase might not know about. 

I scoured the PS5’s menus and all the toggleable features within them recently and found many useful options that I didn’t know the system even had. Six features stood out to me and are worth checking out if you haven’t messed with your PS5’s options much since you picked it up in November 2020.

Recommended Videos

Custom button assignments

The PS5's button assignments menu.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Whether it’s for accessibility or personal comfort, the ability to remap controllers on a system level is a welcome feature on modern gaming hardware. To modify your DualSense controller’s inputs, you must first pick the Accessories option within the Settings Menu. Then, navigate to the Controllers tab, which lets you modify everything from the DualSense’s vibration intensity to its speaker volume to its controls. Choose the Controllers option in the Related Settings section, then choose Custom Button Assignments, and toggle on Enable Custom Button Assignments

From there, you can toggle on the option to Switch the Left and Right Sticks or choose the Customize Button Assignments tab and remap the DualSense’s button inputs as you see fit. While it’s buried underneath several menus, it’s awesome that this feature is present in the same way it is on Nintendo Switch.

Enable ability to turn on PS5 from network

The PS5's rest mode settings page.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you want to save some time turning your PS5 on, you can actually boot up the system from rest mode remotely from your phone’s PlayStation App or Remote Play app. You’ll need to allow your network to turn the PS5 on to do this, though. Go to the Systems menu within the PS5’s Settings to enable this option. Go to the Power Saving tab and choose the Features Available in Rest Mode option. You will then have the opportunity to toggle on the following setting: Stay Connected to the Internet and Enable Turning on PS5 from Network

After that, log back into your PlayStation mobile apps, and you’ll be able to boot up the console. This feature is helpful if you’re away from your PS5 or a DualSense controller and want to boot it up early. 

Enable Voice Command

The PS5 voice command (preview) settings page.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

While this PS5 feature is still in its preview stages and not available to players outside of the U.S. and U.K. yet, Voice Command gives the PS5 its own version of Siri or Alexa. Voice Command (Preview) has a dedicated submenu within the PS5’s Settings, and from there, you can toggle this feature on and off, set the speak speed and volume, and more. If your DualSense or headset’s microphone is enabled, you cab say “Hey PlayStation,” and ask the system to open, go to, find, or search for games and apps.

If you’re watching a movie or listening to music on your PS5, you can also use Voice Commands to resume, rewind, fast-forward, and scroll through any media playing on the system. It’s not as fully featured as something like Siri just yet, but it’s still useful if you have many games downloaded and want to boot up something quickly. This may be a key feature for the PS5 in the long run, so why not get used to it during the test phase?

Easy Screenshots and Easy Video Clips Button Mapping

The PS5's create button customization page.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’ve ever been frustrated that the Create button on the PS5 only brings up a menu when pressed, the system lets you modify the Create Button to support an Easy Screenshot or Easy Video Clips mode. To make this change, go to Captures and Broadcasts in the Settings submenu and choose the Captures option. From there, you can open the Shortcuts for Create Button tab and make these modifications. 

By choosing Easy Screenshot, pressing the share button once will take a screenshot, holding it will display the Create Controls Menu, and pressing it twice will save a video clip of recent gameplay. Easy Video Clips lets users start and end video recording with two taps of the share button. These shortcuts make the capturing process much smoother if you’re into video or image content creation. 

Game presets

The PS5 game presets menu.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Game Presets is one of the PS5’s most remarkable features that does not get enough attention. These let players preset their preferences regarding game difficulty, performance and resolution modes, first- and third-person camera movement controls, subtitles, and audio language. If a game supports the Game Presets feature, it will automatically apply your preferred options, saving you some time when you first boot up games.

Being able to choose and modify options like game difficulty and subtitle preference on a system level is helpful from both an accessibility and ease of use point of view, so it’s surprising that this feature doesn’t get more attention from fans and developers. Still, if you can navigate to the Save Data and Game/App Settings submenu and choose the Game Preset tab, booting up many new games on your PS5 will become a significantly smoother experience.

Set time until controllers turn off

The PS5's power saving settings menu.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The DualSense controller doesn’t use batteries and can quickly lose its charge. As such, a system feature that lets you save a bit of power is useful. To save some of your DualSense’s battery life, go to the Power Saving tab of the system submenu in Settings. You can set your controllers to turn off if they are unused for 10, 30, or 60 minutes. This will save you some battery life and charging time if you accidentally leave your controller on.

It also pairs well with customizations that can be made in the Controllers tab of the Accessories submenu, as decreasing vibration and trigger effect intensity and dimming the brightness of controller indication should also help your DualSense last a little bit longer. Make these slight changes and you won’t have to worry about your controller disconnecting as often, which should help if the DualSense’s charging cable doesn’t reach your couch.

Tomas Franzese
As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
I have a theory on how the PS5 Pro could actually outclass PCs
The PS5 Pro suspended in air.

Without a doubt, the PlayStation 5 Pro is the most powerful game console we've ever seen. It's set to launch next week, promising "45% faster rendering" on the back of a beefier graphics card and faster memory. It won't be enough to outclass a proper gaming desktop packing one of the best graphics cards -- not even close. But the PS5 Pro could have an edge over PCs in one area.

I say "could" because we really don't know. AMD pointed me to Sony, and Sony hasn't returned my request for comment about the specifics under the hood of the PS5 Pro. I have some hints, however, and if you'll indulge a little speculation, I have some interesting theories about how the PS5 Pro might have an edge over even powerful gaming PCs.
The PS5 Pro's secret weapon

Read more
Bad news: Your PS5 Slim covers won’t work on the PS5 Pro
The PS5 engraving on the console is being aligned with the cutout on the new top cover.

People have a lot of questions about the PlayStation 5 Pro ahead of its launch on November 7. Is it worth $700? How much better will your games look and play? Will your PS5 Slim faceplate match? You'll have to wait for reviews to answer a lot of those questions, but we now have an answer to that last one. Digital Trends can confirm that PS5 Slim covers won't work with the PS5 Pro.

"PS5 console covers are not compatible with PS5 Pro. However, players will be able to swap out different console covers for PS5 Pro when they become available in the future," a PlayStation spokesperson told IGN Thursday.

Read more
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered looks incredible. Does it matter?
Aloy standing in knee-deep water with her bow and arrow in front of some ruins.

If you need proof that the video game industry’s current rerelease craze has started to lose the plot, look no further than Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.

Like Sonic Generations or Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Sony’s latest gives its debut Horizon game a major visual upgrade that’s far more polished compared to its predecessor. Unlike those games, though, Horizon Zero Dawn isn’t a release from two or three generations ago; it only launched in 2017. Seven years may sound like a lifetime for younger players, but it’s barely any time at all as far as console generations go. If Sony was going to convince players to double-dip, it would need to deliver one heck of a remaster.

Read more