Plex is adding new social features to the platform.
As of today, users can make and share “personalized lists on Plex of any movie, show or episode,” the company said in an announcement. Later this year, users will be able to import lists from other streaming services and react to other people’s lists.
This month, Plex will also launch a community forum that will allow people to “post and comment directly on any movie, show, season, or episode.” Later this year, Plex will introduce “Match Scores” based on a viewer’s history and past ratings to predict how much they’ll like a show or movie, Plex said.
Plex already lets people rate content, and this year it will also allow them to react with emoji. Similarly, Plex will also enable people to respond to reviews and discussions with images. The goal, per Plex’s announcement, is to bring “a new layer of expression to every conversation.”
Finally, a “Follow Anything” feature coming this year will provide users with alerts around movies, shows, actors, and crew members that they follow.
Plex’s announcement claimed that its users have already “made over 100 million watching decisions a month and created more than 45 million watchlists,” making the new capabilities relevant to how people use Plex today.
“The addition of these features marks the next step in Plex’s vision to unify entertainment discovery and help users navigate an increasingly fragmented streaming landscape,” Plex’s announcement said.
Plex is targeting a common challenge for streaming users: finding stuff worth watching across streaming services.
“We believe the future of entertainment discovery is social and trust-driven,” Scott Olechowski, co-founder and chief product officer at Plex, said in a statement.
Plex’s evolution
The new capabilities highlight Plex’s focus on features that go beyond its media server business.
In 2019, Plex started offering free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels. By 2024, Plex was selling movie rentals, a stark contrast to its original business, which focused on letting people share their own media with friends and family. The California-headquartered company has since added the ability for users to leave reviews on movies, as well as to comment on other users’ reviews.
Meanwhile, Plex’s changes have raised concerns among some users about its commitment to self-hosting. For instance, Plex last year began removing users’ ability to remotely access a personal media server without paying a subscription fee. Plex also got rid of its Watch Together feature and redesigned its app to look more like a streaming service. And starting next month, the price for a lifetime subscription to Plex’s media server features will increase from $250 to $750. When launched in 2012, the Lifetime Plex Pass cost $75.
Plex’s evolution from its legacy business seems to be paying off. The company’s marketing VP, Scott Hancock, said in 2023 that Plex has had more people using its online streaming service than its media server features since 2022. Ad-supported streaming has also been a top revenue driver for the company, which is key as it seeks profitability.
This all suggests that Plex’s expanding interest in streaming and rentals won’t end anytime soon.
