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Sony doesn't get enough credit for their quick bar menu on PS4

Skittles

Skittles

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,570
(the one you get by holding down the ps button)

Man, this thing is seriously great. Probably the best addition along with boost mode and downsampling. The simple ability to start a full party with friends in literally 3 seconds or start and control music has gone leagues towards making the ps4 UI being the snappiest out of the 3. After using it so much it makes the dashboard itself feel like it takes an eternity do anything, even though it's decently fast by itself. Though, I don't even use the normal dashboard much because the quick menu covers nearly everything I would need to do. Really hope the PS5 just builds upon on the PS4 OS, because I fucking hate the console OS cycle of slowly building up to features we had previously.

Also, shoutout to the media player for getting rudimentary subtitle control (i also think they recently added audio track selection). It's actually amazingly useful for older animes/movies with their piss yellow subtitles. I can do a basic white text with a dropshadow for readability.
 
Whatislove

Whatislove

Member
Jan 2, 2019
905
I wish it used less resources as it has noticeable chug for me at times but its definitely a far cry from the state it was in at launch.
 
TheLoCoRaven

TheLoCoRaven

Banned
Dec 4, 2017
379
I mainly just use it to turn off controllers when I go back to my logitech harmony to watch PSVue. Helps with turning off the DS4 or VR stuff.
 
Nephtes

Nephtes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,887
It's okay.
It's better than what they used to have there. I still end up going to the PS4 dashboard more often than not for trophy and friend stuff.

It's certainly not as nice as the Xbox side menu (not the main Xbox dashboard which has gotten way overcrowded since Mixer and Game pass were added).
It took MS like 50 iterations since 2013, but the side menu finally works fast and efficiently, especially for checking achievements, making parties, and quickly changing audio settings for the headset/mic.

Now if only we could get MS and Sony to de-bloat the actual dashboards...

Edit: the Switch UI feels the best to me honestly. 0 bloat. Granted, there's less going on without the ability to voice chat with friends (or even find them without a friend code. But... That dashboard feel and those sound effects... So good.
 
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Deleted member 27751

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
3,997
Transistor said:
It's amazing how far the OS has come since launch. I love the in-game PS menu
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And yet for me it feels it goes backwards further with each update I'm regards to speed. The bar is slow to pull up especially in a game, the menus are laggy and incredibly frustrating, there is clutter everywhere and the God awful media bar.

I'm super spoiled by the switch but boy is it light years ahead UI experience wise.
 
benzopil

benzopil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,251
The ability to quickly change the volume without spending 5 minutes in ingame menu is great
 
OP
OP
Skittles

Skittles

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,570
Skittles said:
(the one you get by holding down the ps button)

Man, this thing is seriously great. Probably the best addition along with boost mode and downsampling. The simple ability to start a full party with friends in literally 3 seconds or start and control music has gone leagues towards making the ps4 UI being the snappiest out of the 3. After using it so much it makes the dashboard itself feel like it takes an eternity do anything, even though it's decently fast by itself. Though, I don't even use the normal dashboard much because the quick menu covers nearly everything I would need to do. Really hope the PS5 just builds upon on the PS4 OS, because I fucking hate the console OS cycle of slowly building up to features we had previously.

Also, shoutout to the media player for getting rudimentary subtitle control (i also think they recently added audio track selection). It's actually amazingly useful for older animes/movies with their piss yellow subtitles. I can do a basic white text with a dropshadow for readability.
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Nephtes said:
It's okay.
It's better than what they used to have there. I still end up going to the PS4 dashboard more often than not for trophy and friend stuff.

It's certainly not as nice as the Xbox side menu (not the main Xbox dashboard which has gotten way overcrowded since Mixer and Game pass were added).
It took MS like 50 iterations since 2013, but the side menu finally works fast and efficiently, especially for checking achievements, making parties, and quickly changing audio settings for the headset/mic.

Now if only we could get MS and Sony to de-bloat the actual dashboards...

Edit: the Switch UI feels the best to me honestly. 0 bloat. Granted, there's less going on without the ability to voice chat with friends (or even find them without a friend code. But... That dashboard feel and those sound effects... So good.
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What friend stuff are you doing outside the quick menu?
 
RF Switch

RF Switch

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
4,118
holyrunts said:
Compared to the mess that is the Xbone's UI, it's incredibly clear and quick.
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I mean Iam not trying to take anything away from the PS4 menu but the Xbox Guide menu is just as if not more customizable and fast. I haven't messed with my PS4 in a while but with Xbox One I can start any game, start a party, start streaming on mixer, invite everyone to the game Iam playing in less than a minute.
 
Rodelero

Rodelero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,886
Eorl said:
And yet for me it feels it goes backwards further with each update I'm regards to speed. The bar is slow to pull up especially in a game, the menus are laggy and incredibly frustrating, there is clutter everywhere and the God awful media bar.

I'm super spoiled by the switch but boy is it light years ahead UI experience wise.
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The Switch has a quick and slick UI purely because they have no features in it. They are light years behind, not light years ahead.
 

rumplestilts

Member
May 30, 2018
290
RF Switch said:
I mean Iam not trying to take anything away from the PS4 menu but the Xbox Guide menu is just as if not more customizable and fast. I haven't messed with my PS4 in a while but with Xbox One I can start any game, start a party, start streaming on mixer, invite everyone to the game Iam playing in less than a minute.
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This has not been my experience on my launch era Xbox One. It is clunky and slow for me in general.
 

Deleted member 27751

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Banned
Oct 30, 2017
3,997
Rodelero said:
The Switch has a quick and slick UI purely because they have no features in it. They are light years behind, not light years ahead.
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I mean I can do all of what the sidebar does on the switch too, from their sidebar and bottom main menu sidebar. There is nothing unique to the ps4 sidebar that I can think of?
 
Nephtes

Nephtes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,887
Skittles said:
What friend stuff are you doing outside the quick menu?
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Send game invites, compare trophies, check messages, etc.

One problem with he PS4 quick menu is certainly an issue MS used to have where single click of the home button brought you to the dashboard instead of the quick menu. But MS fixed that in later revisions, meaning, you're more likely to use the quick menu
On the PS4, more often than not, I'll end up on the dashboard rather than the quick menu because I'm not long holding the home button on the PS4.

The PS4 side menu might be more familiar to me if I was brought there more often. MS used to make you do this awful double-tap to get to the the quick menu, which is just a hassle. Same thing with the press and hold required on the PS4.
 
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weebro

weebro

Banned
Nov 7, 2018
1,191
The Switch OS has literally nothing going for it. It felt incomplete on day 1 and to think its still unchanged. Not exactly a good point of comparison.
 
XDevil666

XDevil666

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,985
The PS UI is snappy when you don't have anything running in the background.

It's not bad, the Xbox UI is a lot more fuller with the store integrated so there's hardly any wait times which I prefer.

The switch blows them both out the water on speed, but it's very bare bones but gets the job done!
 
dDASTARDLY

dDASTARDLY

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
703
holyrunts said:
This has not been my experience on my launch era Xbox One. It is clunky and slow for me in general.
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The quick menu is clunky? That's a first, and I literally just replaced my launch xbox with an x for Christmas lol.

I'll give you the actual xbox menu on a launch model is complete ass, but the quick menu was always pretty smooth in comparison.
 
SxP

SxP

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,014
My most common use of the quick menu is simply to check the time! For that alone, I'm happy it's so quick to pop up (and go away again).
 
Virtua Sanus

Virtua Sanus

Member
Nov 24, 2017
6,492
Xbox 360 was like this. You could even play your own music over literally any game. Devs hated that though so we lost it this gen. :(
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
47,128
Edit: For some reason misread thought this was about the cross bar.

Yeah the quick bar menu is really nice.
 
Themaddestgamer

Themaddestgamer

Banned
Nov 30, 2017
1,563
What. The other console makers don't have this?

Use it all the time. Always enter rest mode directly from a game which suspends the game and I pick up exactly where I left off.
 
Shpeshal Nick

Shpeshal Nick

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,856
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holyrunts said:
This has not been my experience on my launch era Xbox One. It is clunky and slow for me in general.
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Absolutely no one complains about the Xbox One OS performance more than me. But the Guide is literally the only part of it that is never sluggish.

The Xbox guide is awesome. Performs as it should even when the main dash shits itself (which is a lot) and it can do a shitload of stuff.

As far as I'm concerned, it basically is the OS.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,943
I love the quick bar menu but isn't it basically exactly the same as the guide on the Xbox? That's probably why Sony doesn't get credit for it. Because it's not unique to this console?

Xbox-ONE-guide-menu-2018_3.jpg
 
potatohead

potatohead

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,889
Earthbound
Yea they definitely don't get enough credit.

I have been using it on my laptop through Remote Play and it absolutely destroys Steam Big Picture as far as usability. It is just simple, clean, accessible.

I think the only thing I would like is a few more filter options in the library section and organization options, that's about it. Like what games are installed on the HDD from SEN and which are disc based or something.

Quick menu is dope as well, very clean and easy to use.

The greatness of a UI is how easy it is to find something. Looking for a setting? Check settings, and if it is categorized well, you shouldn't need to wonder where it is, you'll find it on your own, and that's what the PS4 UI does.
 
Jimnymebob

Jimnymebob

Member
Oct 26, 2017
20,568
The entire PS4 UI has been screwed for me (but just my main PSN log in, other accounts are fine) for years now.
The Quick Menu takes about 15 seconds to open, then 2 seconds to scroll down each option, the store just doesn't load, I can't use the library, and I can't view my profile.
I use this for turning my controller off, and that's about it.
 
RF Switch

RF Switch

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
4,118
holyrunts said:
This has not been my experience on my launch era Xbox One. It is clunky and slow for me in general.
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Are you talking about the quick guide? Because that's been lightning fast since it's introduction. Nobody is talking about the home screen which is what you only have to deal with to add stuff to your quick menu
 
SPDIF

SPDIF

Member
Oct 27, 2017
363
Well it would be a bit strange to give credit to Sony for something that MS implemented over a decade ago.
 
Rodelero

Rodelero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,886
Eorl said:
I mean I can do all of what the sidebar does on the switch too, from their sidebar and bottom main menu sidebar. There is nothing unique to the ps4 sidebar that I can think of?
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There are whole sections of the PS side menu that literally have no equivalent on the Switch OS...

From the PlayStation side bar I can:

1) Turn off my PS4 (you have to delve deeper if you want to turn off rather than sleep a Switch)
2) See my friends list (have to go to home, and then several menus deep on Switch)
3) Create a party and quickly send invites to it (Switch has no party system of any kind)
4) Use Spotify
5) Hide that I'm online (if this is possible on Switch, I can't see how to do it and it's inevitably deep in the OS)
6) Quickly access to broadcasting (no twitch integration on Switch) and share play (no equivalent on Switch)

There are definitely issues with the PlayStation OS, but it is head and shoulders above its competitors overall. Far more usable and intuitive than the Xbox's OS, massively more feature rich than the Switch's OS.
 
Lindsay

Lindsay

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Nov 4, 2017
3,287
I just use it to turn off my controller when I'm gonna be idling for abit. It could be better in that regard by having "turn off controller" in the main menu instead of a sub-menu.

Nephtes said:
It's okay.
It's better than what they used to have there. I still end up going to the PS4 dashboard more often than not for trophy and friend stuff.
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What'd it use to be like? Didn't have a PS4 in year 1/2/3.
 

Deleted member 4976

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,246
ghostcrew said:
I love the quick bar menu but isn't it basically exactly the same as the guide on the Xbox? That's probably why Sony doesn't get credit for it. Because it's not unique to this console?

Xbox-ONE-guide-menu-2018_3.jpg
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Because they don't have the same functions and the XB1 bar (and UI in general) pales in comparison to the PS4 one in terms of quick accessibility and speed.

Switch would be the best UI if it actually had some damn features cause it's the fastest.
 
Seedy87

Seedy87

Member
Jan 4, 2018
255
I feel like the shortcut menu on Xbox One is much better (and has more options thanks to the Blades approach like way back on Xbox 360). But, in terms of the PS4, it's... ok. It's just a shame that the rest of the XMB menu has become horrendously sluggish over the generation.
 
Spinluck

Spinluck

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Oct 26, 2017
29,913
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It's really nice but can still be slow as shit sometimes.

Switch has the most reliable and consistent OS imo. It's always responsive.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,943
Primethius said:
Because they don't have the same functions and the XB1 bar (and UI in general) pales in comparison to the PS4 one in terms of quick accessibility and speed.

Switch would be the best UI if it actually had some damn features cause it's the fastest.
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I use both daily and I can't think of anything that I use my PS4 quick bar for that my Xbox One guide can't do. What do you do with your PS4 bar that you can't do on your Xbox?

I feel like, if anything, you can do more on the Xbox One guide? Maybe I'm wrong.
 
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