Evolution of Plex: From Personal Media to a Social Streaming Hub
Plex has transformed significantly from its original role as a personal media haven to becoming a versatile platform for discovering, streaming, and sharing content. This includes Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies. Recently, Plex has expanded into social networking, introducing features that enhance user interaction and engagement.
Plex’s Social Networking Expansion
In November 2023, Plex introduced “Discover Together,” a feature enabling users to create profiles, connect with friends, and track each other’s viewing habits. Although initially met with some resistance due to its opt-out nature, Plex addressed concerns by ensuring adult content doesn’t appear in users’ Activity feeds.
“Offering a more social experience allows Plex to better compete with other streaming platforms and dedicated social networks for movie and TV reviews.”
{Plex Representative}
New Social Features: Share Your Viewing Experience
With the latest update, Plex users can now share their profiles publicly via a URL on watch.plex.tv. Unless users have disabled this feature in their settings, they are searchable within the app. The profile showcases viewing history, Watchlist, and more, without altering existing privacy settings.
- Make Ratings & Reviews visible to others
- Choose visibility options: public, friends only, or private
A New Look for Plex: User Interface Redesign
Alongside these networking advancements, Plex is previewing a redesigned user interface on Apple TV. The update promises easier navigation, enhanced personal media customization, and improved access to features with more artwork and social networking elements.
Benefits for Plex Pass Subscribers
Plex Pass subscribers will gain access to HEVC hardware encoding for superior video quality while conserving bandwidth. This feature moves from its preview phase to being available for all paid users.
Plex’s ongoing transformation into a socially interactive platform demonstrates its commitment to enhancing user experience and staying competitive in the streaming landscape.
