Having many friends on your new console’s social network can be a pain sometimes. The messages and voice chat invites may be nonstop once they notice you are online. For PlayStation 5, you won’t have to completely log off your account to hide from everyone. Instead, you’ll discover taking a moment to appear offline is much less of a hassle.

Where is the ‘appear offline’ option?

To begin, navigate to the PS5’s main menu. Then, press on the PlayStation button to pull up the quick menu. The second to last option should be a picture of your profile. A tab should appear above it, giving you the ability to change your status. From here, there will be three options to choose from, online, busy, and appear offline.

Changing your online status can also be done in the Profile menu, next to the Settings icon in the top-right corner of the main menu. From there, you should see a silhouette on the right side of the screen, which will also display the three status options.

What does appearing offline do?

Appearing offline will only affect how your friends see you listed and does not disable any online functionalities or games. However, changing your online status will be in effect for as long as you’d like. So, if you’re open to accepting invites in the near future, be sure to change it back when needed.