Plex’s new UI for iPhone – Image Credit: Plex
Plex has rolled out its new mobile experience, giving iPhone users an updated app for streaming content from their home server.
Available to some users in preview since November 2024, the new iOS app experience for Plex has arrived. The update has started to roll out slowly, with all users expected to get the new interface within a week.
The update now brings the Plex experience into a single seamless interface, combining both a user’s media collection on their Plex server and on-demand content. The aim is to make it much simpler and intuitive to navigate, with core features brought forward instead of burying them within menus.
The changes include centralizing media libraries into a dedicated tab, putting Watchlist in the top navigation, and a considerable streamlining of the user menu with a lot more artwork on display. This last point includes quicker access to personalized details, including the user’s profile, watch history, connected streaming services, and friends.
The experience won’t just be a mobile one, as Plex insists it is still working on a preview of its TV platforms, to bring them more in line with the mobile apps.
According to the Plex forums, the list of improvements include better load times and scrolling performance, improved “View All” collections to display correct items, personal Live TV tuners, a sleep timer has been added, and support for portrait mode, among others.
New UI, but more expensive
The rollout of the new mobile app is not the only important change to Plex to be announced in March. On March 19, it revealed there will be some pricing changes to the service, including a significant price increase from April 29.
The monthly Plex Pass will increase from $4.99 to $6.99 per month, with the year plan priced at $69.99 versus the current $39.99 price tag. The Lifetime Plex Pass is also going up, from $120 at present to $249.99.
At the same time, the remote streaming option for personal media will not be available as a free service. Instead, either the Plex Media Server owner or the user needs a Plex Pass for it to work.
There will also be a new Remote Watch Pass subscription, which will cost $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year, for the same streaming access.
While making the service more expensive, Plex is also removing its one-time mobile activation fee, which enforced one-minute play limits for remote streaming to an iOS or Android device.
The price changes aren’t entirely unexpected, as Plex joins other companies, such as Netflix, that are raising prices for consumers.
