Out of the blue, PlayStation has rolled out a PS4 update with larger parties and universal Android compatibility for Remote Play.
As part of PS4’s 7.00 update, available worldwide as of this week, PlayStation is adding several new important features for the PlayStation ecosystem. Now I say it like that because since PS4 is only getting one major update, there’s other little quality-of-life things coming this week that are very important as well.
PlayStation parties are now going to be able to support up to 16 players in each party, increasing from the previous cap of eight total. PlayStation has also stated that they’re implementing improvements for network connectivity and better audio quality:
Within the Party feature, you will experience better network connectivity and audio quality. The improved back-end now improves network connectivity and allows users to overcome connectivity issues previously experienced when connecting with other users.”
They’re also adding in an option for chat transcription (for the US market only) through the PS4 Second Screen App, able to convert party voice chat to text as well as send text-to-speech messages through chat in parties as well.
Along with this, PS4 Remote Play is finally becoming available for all Android users. Any devices with Android 5.0 or above should now be capable of streaming PS4 gameplay directly to mobile screens. They’re also including added functionality to connect the PS4 controller directly to devices using Remote Play via Bluetooth, which is releasing sometime this October.
Again, these are all great quality-of-life additions to the PlayStation, seemingly added at random. At least now you can play The Last of Us on the couch for free with your phone while someone watches TV.
