A new PS5 system software beta has added Discord voice chat and Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p displays, among a number of other upgrades.
Announced on the PlayStation Blog, the new system software is available for beta participants in the U.S., Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, and France. Its main feature is the addition of Discord voice chat, which allows cross-platform calls through the popular Discord system. Users will need to link their Discord and PlayStation Network accounts to use the service, and then begin a call on the Discord mobile app before transferring it to their console. It seems a little more fiddly than a standard PSN party, but will no doubt be very welcome to those who frequently play with friends who are on Xbox and PC.
The other headline feature of the beta update is Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p resolution displays. This allows smoother visual performance when using a VR-compatible HDMI 2.1 display, provided the game supports Variable Refresh Rate. VRR can be enabled from your Screen and Video settings.
The new beta also provides a variety of smaller user experience-focused upgrades. These include the ability to share you screen directly from a friend's profile card; a "Friends Who Play" tile that shows who on your friends list also plays the game you're looking at; a new manual upload function for sending specific gameplay captures to the PS App; PS VR and PS VR2 filters for the game library; a new PS5 to PS5 data transfer function (available over Wi-Fi or LAN); and a notification pop-up for PS4 games that alerts you to any PS4 save game data you have in the cloud.
There's also a limited U.S. and UK release for video capture voice commands. This allows users to say "Hey PlayStation, capture that" to save a video clip of gameplay. It's the Xbox Kinect days all over again.
For more from the world of PlayStation, check out the games coming to PS Plus in February, as well as the news that the PS5 PS Plus Collection is being removed entirely later this year.
Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.
