The *PS5* interface is changing! This time, it’s finally not so annoying

When I came across this news on the subway, my first reaction felt pretty honest. It’s like looking for your earbuds every day—clearly right within reach, yet somehow you still end up rummaging around a couple more times. The newly leaked PS5 home interface isn’t about flashy gimmicks this time; it changes the navigation logic you use most often. For someone like me who just wants to jump into a game as quickly as possible, this kind of update actually feels the most noticeable.

At the moment, some PS5 users have already received this visual update first, and it will gradually roll out to all players over the coming months. The core change is very straightforward: the horizontal scrolling bar on the home screen is now basically filled with PS5 and PS4 games. PS Plus and PS Store, which used to take up space there, have been moved to a second-layer menu at the top. The Welcome Hub is still at the very front and hasn’t been removed.

What makes this adjustment feel good is that it separates “finding games” from “finding services.” As soon as you enter the home screen, what you see first is the games themselves, not a bunch of store and membership portals, which makes everything look much cleaner. On top of that, the new version turns the store, membership, game library, and media into tab pages, so you can switch quickly by pressing L1 or R1 instead of slowly moving across one tile at a time. Gaming blogger @SynthPotato also shared a hands-on demo and believes the navigation is indeed faster.

There’s another point I think is pretty important: the original button for switching between games and media apps has now been replaced with an expanded options menu, and PS Plus and the store have been integrated into it as well. This kind of change is a lot like putting your most frequently used apps into the dock on your phone—it doesn’t look like a huge adjustment, but in daily use it saves you a few steps every time. For people who often switch between the store, membership, and media within the PS5 ecosystem, this upgrade should feel more noticeable than expected.

That said, this isn’t the kind of update that feels “mind-blowing the moment you boot up” like a major overhaul. It’s more like tidying up the entryway at home: the shoe cabinet is still the same shoe cabinet, but now you won’t trip over things on your way out. So if you already felt the old interface was tolerable, you might think the change isn’t all that big; but if you’ve always felt the PS5 home screen was a bit awkward to navigate, there’s a good chance this will feel much smoother to use.

Judging from discussions in the player community, the split in opinion is pretty typical too. One side thinks it’s “more user-friendly and faster to navigate,” while the other believes it’s just a reshuffling of positions without any fundamental difference. Personally, I lean toward the former, because when it comes to a console interface, the fewer interruptions, the better. It should feel like scrolling through short videos—just moving along smoothly—that’s what really feels effortless. So if you’ve just picked up a PS5 recently, there’s no need to overthink it yet. Just wait for the update to roll out over the next few months, then see whether you also end up pressing a few fewer buttons.