Plex unveils new cross-platform discovery, watchlist features

Plex has announced a pair of new features to its platform on Apple TV and Android TV that will make it easier to find and watch content from across different streaming services in one place.

The new Plex Discover and Universal Watchlist features will allow users to search for titles across services like Apple TV+, Netflix, Amazon Video, and more. From there, users will create a customized cross-platform watchlist and view their favorite shows, movies, and other content.

"Starting today, with two major updates, global streaming media platform Plex becomes the only app you need to find any movie or show, acting as one window into ALL your paid and free streaming services," the company wrote in a blog post.

The average person has about four streaming services, the company says. So, Plex says that its new features are aimed at doing for "streaming media what Google did for the Internet."

The universal watchlist feature on tvOS.

According to a study cited by Plex, about 50% of respondents said they find it hard to know what content is on a specific service. Another 44% said it was difficult to find something to watch at all.

Plex is a free app on the Apple TV App Store, while a premium subscription with additional features costs $4.99 a month.

Both features announced Tuesday are technically in beta form, but are available to Plex users immediately.

5 Comments

lam92103 4 Years · 148 comments

About 2 years ago

Time to move. No wonder Plex is getting worse & worse. Looks like they have sold out

mc1rmutant 10 Years · 8 comments

I like the idea of streaming services being consolidated within the Plex app. Much prefer a single hub for content rather than a bunch of apps.

cgWerks 8 Years · 2947 comments

lam92103 said:

Time to move. No wonder Plex is getting worse & worse. Looks like they have sold out

It has been improving (for my use, anyway), but I really wish they'd put more work in some of the core features.

We *finally* got the ability to download movies/video etc. (something the user community was going crazy over for like 5+ years). They gave us a nice music-player app. So, stuff is happening.

But, one core aspect still missing is photos and ability to pull them (and sets of them) local. Again, download (seems a weak point). About all their photo collection is good for right now is giving slide-shows. But, it isn't a useful place to collect photos, when it absolutely could be (especially given how weak the rest of the photo-management market is!!!). We just need the ability to pick photos, sets of them, or albums, and then download them to our local device. It would make a night & day difference.

crowley 15 Years · 10431 comments

AppleInsider said:

The average person has about four streaming services, the company says.

Crikey. "the average".

crowley said:

AppleInsider said:

The average person has about four streaming services, the company says.

Crikey. "the average".

No doubt, I thought the whole point of Netflix (once upon a time) was one place to go where you could rent/stream just about any movie.

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