Things You Didn’t Know Your PS4 Could Do

You've finally scrounged up enough cash to buy a PlayStation 4, and you've gotten familiar with its basic operation What's next? Amazingly, this eighth generation video game console is filled with all kinds of little-known features

Here are a few things you probably didn't know you could do with your PS4 Remap the controller In 2015, Sony added support for full button remapping on the PS4 By going to the Accessibility subhead in the Settings menu, you'll be able to change which button does what Want the triangle to act like the left trigger? Go right ahead Just remember that button remapping affects the entire system, not individual games

Button remapping may not seem like a big deal, but it's actually a huge boon for physically impaired gamers Steve Spohn, chief operating officer at the AbleGamers, tells Polygon, "If you have limited movement in one arm, only one functioning hand, or even limited digit movement, button positioning is everything" Spohn says that the button remapping feature benefits an estimated 70 million would-be gamers who couldn't otherwise fully operate their PS4 Share Play As demonstrated in this video from Sony, the PS4's exclusive Share Play feature aims to reinvent arcade-style multiplayer for the digital age by letting users remotely connect to a friend's console With Share Play, you can jump in as Player Two even if you live on the other side of the planet

"Hey man, hurry up Come on, I need your help Get over here!" "Dude, I'll be there in a sec!" You can also take control of your friend's game, just like they handed over the controller to someone sitting in the same room And unlike conventional online multiplayer interactions, your friend doesn't even have to own a copy of the game Share Play does have its limitations, including a one hour cap on your shared gaming sessions

But once the hour is over, there's nothing stopping you from reconnecting and jumping right back in, making Share Play perfect for fighting games with fast head-to-head matchups, like Street Fighter V "Here we go, Ken!" Sync to your TV Many smart televisions have the ability to sync up with your PS4, including, of course, Sony's BRAVIA big screens All you've got to do from your main menu is go to Settings, System, and then check the box for Enable HDMI Device Link Your PS4 is then ready to accept commands from your TV, as long as it's compatible You can use your TV remote to scroll through the main menu and inside apps such as Hulu and YouTube

If you turn off your TV, the system should go into Standby mode Likewise, if you turn on your console, it should turn on your television along with it Nifty! Use your mobile device as a keyboard Entering text using the DualShock 4 and the PlayStation 4's digital keyboard can be a slow and tedious slog Fortunately, you can download the PlayStation Second Screen app, which turns your mobile device into a PlayStation 4 remote and keyboard You can use your device's touch screen to swipe and click through the PlayStation 4 dashboard and use the app to enter text

Entering text with your phone or tablet still isn't as fast as using a real keyboard, but it's a whole lot better than picking letters one by one with the DualShock 4's D-Pad Download games remotely You can also use the PlayStation mobile app to buy games directly from the PlayStation Store Even better, using the app, you can start downloading your brand new game remotely so it will be ready to play by the time you get home to your console To enable remote downloading, go to your Power Saver settings Then, choose "Set Features Available in Rest Mode," and make sure that the checkbox next to "Enable Turning on of PS4 from Network" is ticked

You might also need to go back to the main Settings screen, and then navigate to System, and finally to Automatic Downloads to make sure that the type of content you want to download while you're away is enabled Swap your hard drive The PS4 and PS4 Pro both come with respectably-sized hard drives, but video games take up a lot of space these days — you're going to run out of storage eventually Thankfully, you can easily boost your PlayStation 4's storage space, as this video from GameSpot demonstrates If you don't mind opening up your PlayStation 4, you can update the stock hard drive yourself, following Sony's official instructions If that's too intimidating, the PS4 also supports external hard drives that connect to the console via USB

You'll need to make sure that your drive has a USB 30 connection, and that the storage capacity falls somewhere between 250 gigabytes and 8 terabytes Extended storage devices can only store game data and add-ons, not saved games or screenshots, but given that games and DLCs are the big space-eaters, you should be fine Thanks for watching! Click the SVG icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!

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