PS5 Voice Commands: Setup Guide and Full Command List

Every new console generation is another step forward in accessibility. This can come through innovations in the games themselves that let players customize their experience to their own preferences, new controllers, or even the hardware itself. While the PlayStation 5 launched with only a handful of new features compared to its predecessor, Sony has continuously updated its most powerful system yet with functionality to make it easier and more comfortable to control.

One extremely handy and highly requested feature added to the PS5 is voice commands. These let you navigate and control most of your console's functions (outside of actually playing games, of course) without needing to pick up a controller. This system can be both more convenient and more intuitive for people, especially if you're not familiar with navigating the PS5 user interface. To get this system up and running, you need to do a few things, and then know exactly what you can do with the system before you sit back and manage your PS5 with just your voice. Here's a complete voice command guide to get you started.

How Do You Set Up PS5 Voice Commands?

Setting up voice commands isn't very difficult, but it does require a few specific steps that you won't stumble upon by accident and that the system itself doesn't show you anywhere. To set it up, all you need to do is turn on your PS5 and go to the Settings menu. From there, just select Voice Command and toggle it on to enable it.

The "Hey PlayStation!" toggle is also enabled. This is the phrase your PS5 will listen for to start accepting voice commands.

While the PS5 doesn't come with any kind of built-in microphone, your DualSense has a built-in microphone that will meet your voice command needs. Make sure the microphone is turned on by pressing the small button located at the bottom center of your controller, between the analog sticks.

What Are the PS5 Voice Command Settings?

In this menu, there are a few other voice command settings you can fine-tune to customize your experience a bit. Unfortunately, you can't add new voice commands for functions it doesn't already cover, but you can at least make it a little more useful.

Speech Rate and Speech Volume simply let you adjust how quickly and how loudly the PS5 responds to your voice commands.

Response Timeout determines how long after saying "Hey PlayStation!" the system assumes you no longer want to give a command and stops listening. On the normal setting, you have four seconds to issue a command before it stops listening.

One important setting that, for whatever reason, isn't listed on this screen is the list of commands. The list of commands we detailed below is available just by saying, "Hey, PlayStation. Help." This is a great and easy way to remind yourself what you need to say to do different things, or things you may have forgotten you can do.

PS5 Voice Command List

These are all the voice commands currently available for use with your PS5. Again, if you forget any command, say "Hey, PlayStation. Help" and your console will give you the full list as well.

Again, you'll need to say "Hey, PlayStation!" before using any of the voice commands below, or you'll just be talking to yourself.

Open a game/app

To launch any game or app you have installed on your PS5, just say "Open X," with X, of course, being the name of the game or app you want to launch. If you want to play a game in a series, or if two names sound similar, your PS5 will give you a list of options based on what you said. When this happens, the different options will be numbered. Just say "Number One" or say the number you want to select the correct one. Alternatively, if none of the options are correct, you can say "Show me more" to see more options, or try again.

You can also say "Go to X" to do the same thing.

Find a game or app

If you want to search for an item in your library or on the PlayStation Store, just say "Find X" or "Search X." This brings up a list of options related to the game or app you're looking for.

Media controls

While the other options are great for quickly moving through menus to get into the game or app you want, voice commands really shine when you're using the PS5 for media purposes. If you're watching a movie, a TV show, or listening to music, you have a set of voice commands at your disposal that are much easier to use than navigating with a controller. Each one is self-explanatory, so we'll simply list them here:

• Pause
• Resume
• Rewind
• Fast forward
• Next
• Previous

At least for now, these are all the voice commands currently available on the PS5. While Sony hasn't confirmed this, there's a possibility more will be added in future updates. If more are added, we'll update this article to include them.