The DualSense wireless controller for the PlayStation 5 includes a built-in monaural speaker located on the front face of the controller, between the touchpad and the PS button. This speaker is an evolution of the small speaker first introduced in the DualShock 4 (DS4) and is positioned as a deliberate audio output channel, separate from the main television speakers or a headset connected to the controller's 3.5 mm jack (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020; Wikipedia, 2025). For an open-world title such as Grand Theft Auto VI, the controller speaker has clear creative potential as a near-field audio source that supplements the room's main sound stage with intimate, character-attached, or device-specific audio events. This report surveys the documented and demonstrated use cases for the DualSense speaker, with a particular focus on in-game phone calls and ambient/environmental audio, and considers what implementation patterns are most relevant to GTA VI's mechanics.
The DualSense speaker is described by Sony as an "improved" version of the speaker that shipped with the DS4, with a wider frequency response and higher fidelity when reproducing voice, music and effects (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020). Like the DS4 before it, the DualSense also includes a built-in microphone array, a 3.5 mm headset jack with a hardware mute button, and Bluetooth pairing with PS5 audio devices (Wikipedia, 2025). The speaker therefore sits inside a small but complete audio I/O subsystem in the player's hands, which the system software can switch between (controller speaker, controller-connected headset, HDMI/optical, Bluetooth headset). Compared with the DS4, the DualSense's audio components are tuned to integrate with the PS5's Tempest 3D AudioTech engine, so the controller speaker can be addressed as one more endpoint among the system's audio routes (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020).
The most consistently cited use case for the controller speaker is voice-over from a character or device that is "on" the player rather than in the game world at large. Sony's reveal material for DualSense highlights the speaker as a way to "enrich" audio coming from the in-game environment and explicitly references hearing a character speak or a device respond to player actions (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020). On the DS4 this pattern was used extensively in titles such as Grand Theft Auto V, where in-game phone calls from contacts like Lamar or Trevor played through the controller speaker, mimicking the experience of holding a phone to the ear; Death Stranding used the same speaker for Codec-style transmissions; and The Last of Us Part II routed walkie-talkie chatter through the pad (Wikipedia, 2025). The DualSense inherits this idiom and improves its fidelity. For GTA VI, plausible applications include: mission-giver phone calls, in-game social media voice notes, taxi or emergency-services dispatch, and CB / police radio chatter when the player drives an equipped vehicle. Routing such audio to the controller creates a literal "phone in hand" effect while leaving the TV/soundbar free to carry the ambient world mix.
The second major use case is short, localised ambient or environmental cues that should feel attached to the player rather than to a spatial point in the world. The DualSense product page notes that the controller's audio features are designed to "bring gaming worlds to life" by adding small, near-field details to the main mix (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2024). Typical patterns established on DS4 and carried to DualSense include weather effects when the player character is exposed (rain on a hood, wind in an open vehicle), Geiger-counter or scanner ticks, footsteps on changing surfaces in stealth contexts, fire crackle from a torch carried by the player, and short stinger sounds when an item is picked up. In a GTA VI context, the controller speaker is well suited to player-held device audio (lighters, walkie-talkies, in-car GPS voice prompts, weapon dry-fire clicks), as well as low-volume diegetic cues such as a holstered phone's vibration tone or a wristwatch alarm. Because the speaker is monaural and physically small, it works best for content that does not require spatialisation but does benefit from feeling close to the player (Wikipedia, 2025).
A third, narrower category of use is UI and feedback audio that should be coupled tightly with controller input rather than with the on-screen action. Astro's Playroom, the DualSense showcase title bundled with the PS5, uses the speaker for menu chirps, collectible jingles and the "voice" of small in-game characters that the player is directly controlling (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020). The same logic supports mini-game sounds in larger titles: lock-picking clicks, hacking puzzle beeps, dialling tones on an in-game phone keypad, or the click of a camera shutter. These sounds are short, transient and benefit from being co-located with the haptic feedback that the DualSense produces simultaneously, so that the audio "click" and the vibration "click" reach the player at the same time and from the same physical object (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020; Wikipedia, 2025).
Three constraints shape sensible use of the DualSense speaker. First, fidelity: the speaker is small and monaural, so music, complex foley and bass-heavy effects should remain on the main mix; the speaker is best used for speech, transients and thin textures (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020). Second, accessibility: players may use headphones routed through the controller's 3.5 mm jack, in which case audio sent to the "controller speaker" channel is typically redirected to the headset; designers should not rely on the speaker being audible to bystanders or on it being clearly separable from headset audio. Third, mixing: because the controller speaker bypasses the room's audio system, any critical narrative content (such as a mission briefing) should also be subtitled and, where appropriate, mirrored on the main mix for players who mute their controller (Wikipedia, 2025). For GTA VI specifically, the natural fit is to reserve the speaker for the player-character's phone, vehicle radios when the player is inside the cabin, and short device noises, while keeping world ambience, music and dialogue from non-player NPCs on the room mix.
The DualSense built-in speaker is a small but distinctive audio endpoint that supports three well-established use cases: voice content from a device the player is notionally holding (phone calls, radios, codecs), near-field ambient and environmental cues tied to the player rather than to a world position, and tightly coupled UI/feedback audio that pairs with haptics. All three patterns are documented in Sony's own descriptions of the controller and demonstrated across PS4 and PS5 titles (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020; Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2024; Wikipedia, 2025). For Grand Theft Auto VI, the most valuable application is almost certainly the in-game phone, with vehicle radios and short device sounds as secondary uses, leaving the main room mix free for the city's ambience, music and crowd dialogue.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (2020) PlayStation 5: Introducing the new DualSense wireless controller for PS5. PlayStation Blog. Available at: https://blog.playstation.com (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Sony Interactive Entertainment (2024) DualSense wireless controller. PlayStation. Available at: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/accessories/dualsense-wireless-controller/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2025) DualShock (DualSense section). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DualShock#DualSense (Accessed: 14 May 2026).