PS5 Update 26.01-12.60.00 Adds Read Receipts, Friends Activity Jump, Stability Improvements

Sony pushed a PlayStation 5 system update identified as version 26.01-12.60.00 on January 28, 2026, bringing a handful of social and stability improvements aimed at making multiplayer and messaging smoother. The headline additions let players opt into message read receipts and jump directly into friends’ games from the Welcome Hub Friends Activity widget, while also promising general messages and system performance improvements.

The update’s patch notes include the new navigation shortcut: "You can now jump directly from the Friends Activity widget in your Welcome Hub to the games your friends are playing." It also adds a read receipt toggle: "You can now turn on read receipts to show other players when you've read their messages." To enable the feature, follow Settings > Users and Accounts > Privacy > View and Customize Your Privacy Settings > Communication and multiplayer > Show read receipts and set it to Allow. The build has appeared in reporting as 26.01-12.60.00 and in some places with a longer suffix as 26.01-12.60.00.06.

Sony says the new read receipts option will not appear for every account immediately. "This feature will be rolled out gradually, and some users will be able to use it when the system software update is released." If you install the update and do not see the toggle right away, expect a phased activation across consoles and the PlayStation App. The patch notes also list general usability changes: "We've improved the messages and usability on some screens" and "We've improved system software performance and stability."

For players the practical value is straightforward. The Friends Activity jump makes joining co-op sessions and spontaneous multiplayer runs faster, reducing menu hangs and matchmaking detours. Read receipts bring PS5 messaging closer to modern chat apps and can help coordinate sessions more efficiently, though they may also change social expectations. One observer summed up the tradeoff: "Whether this improves coordination or simply adds social pressure to reply faster is likely to depend on how players use it."

The read receipts toggle is presented as an account-level setting that will sync with the PlayStation App on iOS and Android once enabled, so enabling it on console affects mobile messaging as well. Alongside the PS5 update, PlayStation 4 system software version 13.04 was released with no major changes noted.

Smaller updates like this rarely move the needle on core gameplay, but they matter to players who live in multiplayer lobbies and group chats. Expect the new options to appear for more accounts over the coming days, and check Privacy settings if you want read receipts enabled or disabled as the rollout completes.