How to Find the PlayStation 5 “hidden” Web Browser
The dedicated web browser app is one of the few PlayStation 4 features that Sony hasn’t carried over to the PlayStation 5 – at least not officially. It turns out there is a built-in web browser on the PS5. If you navigate through the PS5 menu, you are confronted with a choice of web browser preferences, including options for clearing cookies, changing Javascript preferences, and more. So where the hell is that and how do I use it?
Browser access is not difficult; you can open it in several places through the console settings menu, for example by opening the online user guide under Settings> User Guide, Health and Safety and Other Information> User Guide . It can also appear in-game to download ads, user agreements, and other documents.
Unfortunately, the browser doesn’t have an editable URL bar (or most other modern browsing features, for that matter), so you can’t use it to navigate to other websites.
However, there is a way to open pages and surf the Internet on PS5. The trick involves linking your Twitter account and accessing web pages through your Twitter feed, for example:
- Hold the PS button on your PS5 controller to open the menu.
- Scroll and select the settings icon.
- From the settings menu, choose Users & Accounts> Associate With Other Services.
- Select Twitter from the list, then select “Connect to account.” This will open the Twitter login page in your PS5 browser.
- Sign in to your Twitter account.
Once logged in, you can open links from your Twitter feed and the pages or media are loaded into the browser. While you still can’t connect the url, you can use this workaround to link your way online. Note that some pages may not load at all or load slowly at first, but there are ways to possibly speed up the process (albeit marginally).
- Select Settings> System> Web Browser.
- Turn on “Allow cookies” and “Enable Javascript”.
Disabling these settings is better for your privacy, but they can help some pages display correctly and load faster if enabled.
Speaking of privacy, there are also settings in the PS5 web browser menu to prevent cross-site tracking and delete cookies and website data. These settings imply that Sony expects users to open pages other than user guides and social media login screens, despite the browser’s current limited functionality. Perhaps the app could turn into a full-fledged web browser after a future update, allowing users to browse the web on PS5 as they can on PS4, but for now, this is at least a new way to download links if you happen to use Twitter on your PS5.
In all fairness, most people don’t need a web browser on their game console – their phones or computers are probably near them while they’re playing, and you can always download the YouTube app or other streaming apps like Hulu if you like. watch anything on PS5. However, there is bound to be someone out there who really wants the PS5 to have a dedicated web browser, and this is the closest option right now.
[ TechRadar ]