The PlayStation 5’s Accolades feature has allowed users to connection awards to chap players successful multiplayer games, the thought being it’d assistance foment kindness and camaraderie successful the gaming community. But Sony formally retired it from PS5 this week for 1 reason: No 1 utilized it. Most radical (hi) didn’t adjacent look to cognize it existed.

This spurred a thought exercise: What different gaming consoles inactive person useless features? Take the Switch, for instance. Sure, Nintendo’s hybrid handheld has plentifulness of quietly adjuvant small tricks, similar its cosmopolitan zoom function. But it besides has immoderate that could astir apt get purged without anyone caring—or adjacent noticing.

The “Find Controllers” Function

Of the slew of options successful the Switch’s “Controllers” menu, the “find controllers” relation acold and distant collects the astir dust. Open it, and you’ll spot a paper containing a database of Joy-Cons paired to your console. Hold down the “A” fastener implicit the Joy-Con you’re looking for and it’ll rumble. Quietly. At, like, animal-hearing frequency. It’s intended to assistance you find immoderate detached Joy-Cons that whitethorn beryllium misplaced, but isn’t truly effectual capable to bash its 1 job—Never caput that you really request astatine slightest 1 Joy-Con connected manus to usage it successful the archetypal place.

Sadly, there’s nary console relation that addresses the scourge of Joy-Con drift.

The “News” App

Most of the 7 imperishable icons connected the Switch’s location surface are genuinely utile shortcuts to submenus. One, however, is utilized lone by the radical who accidentally click connected it: the “News” app. Open it up and you’ll spot a reverse chronological provender of digitized property releases from the annals of Nintendo’s selling machine. (You tin besides spot the 3 astir caller “stories” connected the near barroom of the surface erstwhile you footwear up the console.) But if you’re looking for gaming news, you’re not going to work it connected a gaming console—which you’ve presumably booted up to, y’know, play games. You’re particularly not going to work it connected that console if the substance is truthful precise tiny. You’re acold much apt to get your quality from a favourite gaming site.

Voice Chat

Despite what you whitethorn person heard, yep, the Switch has dependable chat! Kinda. It’s a convoluted mess. On PlayStation and Xbox, if you privation to get dependable chat going, you…plug successful a headset and get dependable chat going. On Switch, however, you person to go done a multi-step process and footwear up a companion smartphone app. Nintendo could scrap its dependable chat without anyone caring. Really, if you’re utilizing a smartphone app to speech to your enactment members, Discord is right there.

Keyboard Support

Everyone hates punching successful a password (twice!) to bargain thing connected Nintendo’s eShop, what with the console’s tiny touchscreen keyboard. This workaround doesn’t relation successful handheld mode, but you tin plug a USB keyboard into the dock and usage that to benignant instead. But also: the clip it takes to propulsion retired a keyboard and plug it into the Switch’s dock astir apt takes longer than immoderate task you were initially trying to circumvent. (If you indispensable get into the eShop faster, conscionable deactivate the password requirement.) Nintendo could apt suffer keyboard enactment without overmuch uproar.

Screen Lock (or, well, that it’s an option)

Yes, the Switch’s surface fastener diagnostic is so enormously helpful, situation I accidental essential. Turn it on, and you’ll springiness your console a purgatory of sorts betwixt its waking and sleeping states. You’ll past request to pat the aforesaid fastener 3 times to usage your console, which tin forestall it from inadvertently turning connected when, say, it’s rustling astir successful your bag. Honestly, it shouldn’t adjacent beryllium an option: It should beryllium the standard. Get escaped of the choice, I say, and fto surface fastener beryllium the standard.

Dark Mode

I’m kidding! I’m kidding. But hey, connected this note, wouldn’t it beryllium bully if the Switch had much colour themes for its backdrop? Hello? Hey, where’d you go?