Just like in the promo screens

One of the quieter improvements implemented as part of PlayStation 4 firmware update v2.00 was to the Friends List, which previously would take eons to load. This social section of the next-gen console’s operating system now boots like lightning, showing all of your buddies with nary a sign of a spinning ring. The same is now true of the Messages utility, which appears to have been fixed as part of today’s v2.02 patch.

After installing the update earlier on, we noticed an immediate improvement in the speed at which messages would load. We’ve had several threads stuck on our system for months now as we’ve been unable to remove them, but were able to delete these almost instantly. We also tested sending and receiving several messages to our mates, all of which appeared within seconds – rather than minutes, as was the case previously.

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We haven’t done any scientific studies on this, so it’s possible that your mileage may vary – but having played around with it for the majority of the morning, we’ve definitely come to the conclusion that things have now been tidied up. Have you noticed any improvements to the Messages utility? Are we talking a load of trash? Stabilise yourself in the comments section below.

Update: Having now had an opportunity to analyse the messages utility throughout the day, we’ve come to the conclusion that we may have been a little too hasty in writing this article. While we did notice a marked improvement to the sending and receiving messages earlier in the day, on closer inspection, that hasn’t held up – particularly in peak hours. This leads us to believe that the messaging issues may be PlayStation Network based, rather than firmware related. We apologise if this article may have misled, but will keep monitoring the situation, and hope, if nothing else, this report has drawn closer attention to the problem.