As it turns out, there’s a hidden web browser in the PS5 you can access through a convoluted method. We’ll show you how to browse the web on your PS5 if you really need to.
How to Access the PS5 Web Browser
To use the web browser on the PS5, first head to the Settings page from the main menu. Here, select the Users and Accounts section, followed by Link with Other Services item.
Choose Twitter to open a login page for Twitter. If you’ve connected your Twitter account in the past, you’ll need to unlink it first to use this method.
Don’t actually log in here. Instead, use the left stick to hover the cursor over the Twitter bird logo at the top of the page, then click it with the X button.
When you do this, you’ll go to the Twitter login page like you would with any desktop browser. You don’t need to log into Twitter to proceed, though. Instead, click the Forgot password? link.
On the resulting Find your Twitter account page, click the Twitter bird logo at the top of the page again to load Twitter’s main page. Many links appear at the bottom of this. Find Directory to the bottom-right and click it.
This brings up a page with a Twitter search bar at the top. Click inside this to search Twitter, then you can click links freely on the site to start browsing the web on your PS5.
There’s no browser address bar, so you’ll need to search Twitter for whatever you want to visit online and click links from there. For example, you could search for “MakeUseOf” to find the site’s Twitter profile and use the link in our bio to load the site.
To search the web, we recommend looking up the Twitter page for Bing or DuckDuckGo. Google’s Twitter bio doesn’t contain a link to its website, but you can easily search one of the others to get to Google (or whatever else you’re looking for).
Is the PS5 Web Browser Worth Using?
As you might expect given how Sony hid the browser away, the PS5 web browser isn’t anything fantastic. Basic sites that only have text and images load fine, but anything that requires multimedia isn’t reliable.
You can probably pull up a video site that doesn’t have a dedicated PS5 app to enjoy watching content that way, but don’t expect to use complicated web apps or play games. Using the software keyboard is a pain (unless you connect a physical keyboard). Plus, the Twitter workaround every time is inefficient and prevents you from using Twitter with your PSN account.
Read more: Everything You Need to Know About the PlayStation 5 (PS5)
For most people, there are few reasons you’d actually want to use the browser on your PS5. Chances are that you have a smartphone nearby that’s much easier to use and will work with almost all websites, unlike the clunky PS5 browser experience. The only scenario we can think of where this browser would come in handy is if you want to look something up while using PlayStation VR and don’t want to take the headset off.
This is probably why Hideaki Nishino from Sony said that they “have doubts about whether a web browser is necessary.” There’s a chance that the PS5 could get this feature in the future, but it’s likely not a priority when everyone has better ways to access the web.
Oddly, the PS5 does have a Settings page titled Web Browser that has settings for deleting cookies and similar. It’s not clear why this exists when the browser isn’t meant for general use.
Browse the Web on PS5, If You Really Need To
Now you know how to reach the PS5’s limited web browser. Hopefully you’ll never need it, but it could be a fun trick for showing off to friends. Otherwise, it’s not much more than a PS5 Easter egg.
Image Credit: JMiks/Shutterstock
