Subscribing to multiple streaming services means dealing with multiple watchlists and searching them individually to find that movie you want to watch but Plex may well have the answer to this particular problem. Plex has added a brand new feature called ‘Discover’ that will let you search your favorite streaming services such as Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, and more from a single global search box, and when you actually find the movie you’ve been looking for, save it to a single global watchlist. This could be a game-changer in the world of cord-cutting.
Plex calls it ending the ‘Streaming Struggle’ which may sound a little Over-The-Top (a Stallone arm-wrestling film) but I’m actually inclined to agree with the marketing hype for once. Not only can you search a variety of streaming services from a single search box and then save said content to a single watchlist, but you can do so on any major platform that you can sign into Plex on, which is pretty much everything you can think of. From Android to Android TV, Apple to Roku, Xbox to Fire TV, and move, you can take advantage of this frankly awesome new feature.
You can search for pretty much anything in the known mediaverse:
- By keywords—actors, directors, and more
- Upcoming theatrical releases
- All your favorite streaming services in addition to Plex
- Any of your personal media servers (if you want it to)
It’s not just movies that are currently available that you can add to the global watchlist; you can actually search and add new films to the watchlist and keep tabs on when they are released in theaters, available to rent, and added to one of your streaming subscriptions.
How much does this wonderful new feature cost?
Nothing. No, I’m serious. Plex states that all of the new features described above will be available to everyone, for free. No charge. Gratis. Basically, if you aren’t a Plex Pass subscriber, it doesn’t matter. Being a brand new feature does come with its own set of caveats, though, because it’s launching in a publicly-available beta for the time being which may mean the occasional glitch or bug being experienced. Those already enrolled in Plex’s beta channel will need to update to the latest version to gain access to the global search and watchlist feature.
