When Sony announced that PlayStation 5 would not include a web browser, it seemed like a noticeable downgrade from the previous PlayStation 4. However, it seems that is not exactly true and that there are ways to bypass this, meaning you can quickly load up web pages on your TV.
How to Start it
First, go to system setting and load up the User’s Guide.
Then you have to scroll down to the Users and Accounts menu and head to the “Link with Other Services” option. You can then select to link to a Twitter account which brings you to the Twitter page with a login prompt if you click on the small Twitter icon, which in the top corner, you will see Twitter like you would on any normal Internet browser.
If you log in from there, you will have gained full access to Twitter. And that is how you use PS5’s hidden Web browser.
Want thing to keep in mind is that this will still not enable you to type anything into the URL bar. You can search the web via clickable links that appear in profile descriptions or links.
What Works and What Doesn’t Work
While you can access the broader Internet with PS5, there are limitations. For example, it seems that simple pages that mostly contain images and texts are OK. However, multimedia or interactive pages don’t always turn out the way you wanted them to look.
Youtube and Twitch work fine, as long as you don’t choose the full-screen options. Music streaming sites like Soundcloud or Spotify could load but couldn’t play any music. Which kind of makes them useless. Google tools like Google docs also didn’t work.
As far as gaming goes, some games worked, and others didn’t. More simple ones did, and more complicated one didn’t. The reason is that they require more advanced tools like Flash, so those kinds of games were constantly crashing. A great example of this was online slot games. Their jackpot lobby is full with games, but unfortunately, it was too much for the PS5’s non-native web browser. So for those kinds of games, you will have to find alternatives.
Safety First
Sony has indicated it has no intention of providing a full web browser in the future. While they understand it might be a demanded feature, it is simply not a priority for them. So bypasses like the one we outlined in the article are the closest thing you will get to a web browser. Considering that many sites don’t work, and the ones that do work are a hassle to get, this is a disappointment from Sony.
But we must understand why they did it. The reason is security. Web browsers traditionally have enough potential for security holes to increase the risk of the device as a home product, especially when it has no login, and make it easier to jailbreak them somehow.