You are about to have an easier time sharing PlayStation 4 content and finding friends to game.
PlayStation 4 System Software Update 3.00 will be available Wednesday, and it’s a substantial improvement to the PS4’s community and social tools. Twitter and YouTube functionality are getting a boost, screenshot quality is improving, and it will be easier to keep track of existing friends and find new ones.
The chief differentiation between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One since launch has been superior media capture on the PS4. Twitter and Facebook integration, in particular, still is much smoother and easier on the PS4.
Update 3.00 will allow PS4 users to share 10-second video clips directly to their Twitter accounts. YouTube Gaming launched on Aug. 26, as a hub for game streaming. PS4 users, as of Update 3.00, will be able to stream to YouTube from the Broadcast Gameplay Screen—the same screen that PS4 users go to if they want to stream on Twitch.
Sharing screenshots on the PS4 is wonderfully easy, and now users can save those screenshots as higher-quality PNG files instead of JPEGs. This is a universal setting, i.e. you have to choose one or the other, but may switch back and forth whenever you like.
The final suite of changes for Update 3.00 improve native PS4 social tools like the addition of Groups, which behave like curated friends lists. Group members can always see whether other members are online, what they are playing, and easily send messages or party invites to everyone, at once.
And if you’re looking to make new friends to add into your Groups, PS4 is now going to have a community function that allows players to create custom forums, share screenshots, and find other players interested in the same game.
There are a few, other additions coming with Update 3.00 that you may read about on PlayStation.blog.
Illustration via Sony