Why You Should Avoid Using the Mic on Your PS5 Controller

Having a mic built into the PS5’s DualSense is handy. But here’s why you shouldn’t use it unless you have to.

One of the standout features of the DualSense controller on the PS5 is its built-in microphone. It comes in handy for communicating in games if you don’t have a headset.

However, using this microphone comes with some drawbacks that you should know about. Let’s discuss them.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Your PS5 Controller’s Microphone

By default, your DualSense’s microphone will activate whenever you’re playing a game that supports voice chat, as long as you don’t have any other microphones connected. However, when the controller microphone activates, it will also reduce the intensity of two other key DualSense features: adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.

As you likely know, adaptive triggers adjust the resistance of the L2 and R2 buttons depending on what you’re doing in a game. And haptic feedback is a more advanced version of the classic rumble feature that provides different feedback for various kinds of in-game actions.

Related: How to Save Battery Life on Your PS5 DualSense Controller

In the PS5’s Settings menu under Settings > Accessories > Controllers, you can adjust both the Vibration Intensity and Trigger Effect Intensity. However, when your DualSense’s built-in microphone is active, it will set both of them to Weak, regardless of the setting you’ve chosen here.

This is presumably to cut down on the microphone picking up unnecessary background noise. Since the mic is inside the controller, other players would be able to hear some of the noise from the vibrations and other mechanical feedback inside your controller. As a courtesy to others, it’s thus lowered.

How to Automatically Mute Your PS5’s Microphone

Because of this, if you often play multiplayer games alone and don’t want to communicate with anyone, you could be weakening two of the PS5’s best features without even realizing it. There’s also the risk that your PS5 controller mic could accidentally pick up conversations that you’d rather not share with people online.

You can press the small button under the PS button on your DualSense controller to mute your microphone anytime. You’ll see it turn orange to indicate that your mic is muted.

If you never use that mic anyway, it’s easy to mute your PS5 controller mic by default. Head to Settings > Sound > Microphone and change Microphone Status When Logged In to Mute. You can also change Microphone Status When Starting Chat or Broadcast if you want to keep your mic muted when you join a party or start streaming.

You can change other mic settings here, like selecting your mic preference if you have more than one. Don’t forget that if you connect another microphone (whether wirelessly or a wired headset connect to your controller) that the built-in mic will turn off and thus preserve your trigger and vibration settings.

Enjoy the DualSense Fully

While the DualSense’s built-in microphone is handy in a pinch, leaving it enabled will take away from some of the controller’s best features. Now you now how to steer clear of that issue.

Image Credit: Hopix Art/Shutterstock

About The Author