Plex is now rolling out its revamped app on Android, iPhone, and iPad. The update has a few significant design changes and a new codebase, but a few features have also been removed.
Plex announced last year that it was rewriting its mobile and TV apps from the ground up, focused on a more helpful and modern interface, and creating a shared codebase across all devices. That last point is an important consideration when Plex is available on over a dozen platforms. Plex also decided to take music playback and media backup out of the main app to further simplify development—those feature are now exclusively available in the Plexamp and Plex Photos apps.
New Features
This is a significant redesign that seems to take some inspiration from modern streaming service apps, as well as user review platforms like IMDB and Letterboxd. The main navigation bar has been reorganized into Home, Library, Live TV, On-Demand, and Discover. The latter tab is part of the greater focus on social features: you can see what your Plex friends are watching and reviewing.
Plex specifically highlighted the “redesigned navigation for improved discoverability,” the “dedicated tab for centralized personal media libraries,” the “expanded use of artwork through for richer experiences,” and “a variety of other features to connect, watch, and share smarter.”
The app has received a lot of work since it first entered preview last year. The load times and scrolling performance has bene improved, personal Live TV tuners and Cast support are working again, there are new options for shuffling TV shows and playlists, OpenSubtitles subtitle search is back, and other changes. If you tried out the preview and found a few features missing, they’re probably back now.
What’s Missing?
Like most rewrites and redesigns of popular applications, some features weren’t ready in time for the initial release. Plex says vertical episode lists, quick access to media libraries on the home tab, downloading entire seasons, casting to more devices, scheduling DVR recordings, casting OTA TV, editing the Watch History, and some other options are “coming soon.” Plex is also working on more improvements for downloads storage, offline personal media, and navigation.
Related
Plex Pass Lifetime Memberships Double in Price Next Month, so Sign Up Now
Plex will increase the price of its monthly, yearly, and lifetime memberships on April 29th. The company is also revoking remote access for free accounts, though this only affects server owners, not viewers.
There are some features that are gone for good, though. Photo and music management has been moved to the separate Plexamp and Plex Photos apps. The ability to share access to individual media items has also been removed, but you can still share entire libraries and see previously-shared items. Plex has also killed the option to manually enter a server IP address, which was mainly used for firewalls and other network configurations that blocked Plex’s built-in server discovery.
Plex for Android also no longer supports playback with external apps, like VLC Media Player. A forum post explained, “All playback will be within the Plex app, using our player functionality.” Finally, switching the app icon on iOS will not be supported “for the foreseeable future.”
The Plex team also said, “As you are reading, all our teams are working hard on improving our mobile experience. We have taken into account all feedback we have received and we will continue listening to your impressions. We appreciate your support and understanding.”
Try It Out
The new update is slowly rolling out for Android and iOS. If you don’t see the update yet, you’ll get it soon.
Source: Plex Blog, Plex Forums
