Although Sony announced at launch that the PlayStation 5 would not come with a web browser, it seems there is a way to bypass this dilemma after all. A dedicated web browser was available on most previous systems — including the PS3, PS4, and PlayStation portable iterations. Now the current generation has its own version, but it is a bit tricky to find.
There are two main approaches to accessing the secret web browser on the PS5. Let's examine both methods and see what exactly you can do with the browser in its current state.
Unlocking The PS5 Web Browser With Twitter
The rather "long way" of getting to the PS5 web browser is by going through the Twitter log-in portal via linking your PS account with the social media site. To get there, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings, then Users and Accounts.
- Choose the option "Link with Other Services" and click on Twitter.
- You may already have your Twitter linked to your account, in which case you will have to first unlink for this to work.
- When linking or re-linking your account, instead of logging into your Twitter automatically, click on the Twitter logo at the top of the mini web page.
- Now, log in and you should see your Twitter feed just as you would in a normal browser window on a PC or mobile device.
While you can't enter specific URLs with this version of the PS5 web browser, you can search Twitter far and wide for a variety of links to peruse the web. It's not the most streamlined approach or the most fluid, but at least you're utilizing the raw power of the PS5 to surf the net.
Entering The PS5 Web Browser Via PS Messages
There is yet another super-secret and far easier approach for accessing the PS5 web browser discovered by user D_Ashido on Reddit. This method requires the use of the PS messaging system. You just have one of your friends send you the link to any website of your choosing or you send it to them yourself. After that, you simply access it via the messages on your PS5.
This approach is much, much easier than the Twitter account login, but is also very limited in its overall functionality. Clearly, the PS5 was not suited for web browsing of any kind and is solely meant as a gaming console. With Google loaded into the secret browser, you could theoretically access any site, but videos and some images are rough in loading. You still can't type in any specific URLs in the top bar, either.
There's a purported method of entering the web browser by using the User Manual of the PS5, but the video necessary to launch YouTube may not load properly (as was the case when we attempted to replicate it). This could potentially be a third approach, but as it stands the above way via messaging links appears to be the fastest and most streamlined, despite the very limited use case for the PS5 web browser currently.