🍿 2022-04-05 ​​14:59:13 – Paris/France.
The multimedia platform of Streaming Plex is expanding its mission to serve as a one-stop-shop for media and entertainment with the launch of new features designed to help users discover content to watch on their services. Streaming and the ability to save titles to a Universal Watchlist. The company believes the additions will make Plex more useful in the landscape of Streaming today's increasingly fragmented world, where it's difficult to keep track of what's available to watch on which services, especially when content regularly changes hands as licensing agreements expire.
“Each has its own content and exclusives. Things are moving from one service to another. How do we hope users will navigate it? says Jason Williams, Senior Director of Product and Design at Plex, when discussing issues with the current landscape of Streaming. “We really wanted to fix that…and get back to the roots of Plex, which solves user issues around movies and shows,” he adds.
At launch, users will go through a brief onboarding process where they select the various services of Streaming to which they have access, both free and paid. This helps Plex customize its universal search results and new discovery features.
Image credits: Complex
Once setup is complete, users will be able to search for any content item and find where it is available for download. Streaming, rental or purchase.
From this universal search interface, Plex users can search via titles, people, genres, or collections — the latter referring to groupings like “Star Wars” where multiple titles are available under one umbrella more large. Currently, People Search is limited to users' own media collections, Plex tells us, but this option will soon be extended to Universal Search as well.
Image credits: Complex
At today's launch, Plex has over 450 services indexed for search globally – including hundreds in the US – but actual search results will vary depending on your region and the services you have. indicated that Plex has access.
When viewing a particular title, Plex will first display options for Streaming to which users have access before other services. It will also indicate if the title is currently available in Streaming through the own catalog of Streaming ad-supported from Plex. And it will indicate if the user has the title available in their own media library.
On the title page, you can view other information about the show or movie, such as its runtime, description, category, rating, cast, director, and more. From here, you can also perform actions such as watching a trailer, adding the title to your watchlist, or marking the program as "watched". Usefully, you can choose to launch content directly to a particular service by clicking on one of the options. This feature leverages deep linking technology and works on web, Android mobile, iOS, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV at launch. (Roku support is not yet available, however, due to its existing deep linking policies.)
Image credits: Complex
Another new feature arriving today is intended to address the growing problem of having too many Streaming. Despite the many options we have now, it can be difficult to know what to watch or remember what you wanted to see.
Nowadays, users often open an application from Streaming favorite as Netflix, scroll through the rows of content to see what's popular, trending, and what's new in the service, then switch to another app from Streaming to do the same. It's a frustrating and inefficient way to find new movies and shows that interest you, and ultimately, says Williams, "a terrible experience for users."
With Plex's new Discover section, users will have a way to browse curated and personalized selections of content from their services. Streaming.
On the top row, you'll be able to watch trending trailers to find things to save for later, while other sections will show you top titles on your own services, trending titles on your services, available items to watch from your Universal Watchlist, what's new in your services, what's new available for purchase, and more.
There are also other recommendations available, such as "What's New for the Family," for those looking for more kid-friendly titles on their services, as well as lines that highlight content from a single service, like Netflix. The advantage of this feature is that you don't have to go through multiple apps from Streaming to get a glimpse of what's new and popular right now.
Image credits: Complex
To be clear, however, Plex does not work with streamers themselves to integrate what their internal data has determined to be the most popular and trending content. Instead, Plex relies on partnerships with companies that offer other data feeds to create its collections of suggested content, then customizes them for the individual user based on the services they have available.
"We look at these different APIs — and some of them use social data — and then we aggregate our own 'trends,'" Williams explains of how the Discover section is programmed. “So it's sort of our own vision of trends. We try to help solve this problem of [people who use] three or four different services.
Image credits: Complex
The latest new feature is a long-awaited Universal Watchlist, which ties together Universal Search and Discovery functionality.
As the name suggests, it's just a way to save the movies and shows you want to watch, without having to worry about what service they're on. If the title moves, it won't matter since the watchlist shows you all the places where that show or movie can be streamed, rented, or purchased. (At this time, this does not include Plex's free live streaming catalog, but this may change over time.)
Right now, if you watch a title on your watchlist, it will be removed, so your list doesn't get bogged down with stuff you've already watched.
Image credits: Complex
The combination of new features will make Plex more competitive with services like Reelgood or Whip Media's TV Time, which help users discover things to watch on their services. Streaming and track their viewing by marking episodes that have been viewed – something Plex offers, too. But in a way, the update makes Plex competitive with certain platforms. Streaming themselves – like Roku, for example, which also offers built-in universal search capabilities.
The changes follow a period when Plex reinvented its service for mainstream consumers, instead of just home media enthusiasts who need software to organize movies, TV, music and media. photos on their home networks. The company first started tackling the larger cable cutter market with the 2017 launch of a low-cost streaming TV service. He then moved on to Streaming ad-supported freeware and in 2020 took on rivals like Pluto TV with its own launch of a live TV service. On the heels of this growth, Plex announced $50 million in funding in April 2021.
With the addition of these features that show you where you can watch content, the next logical step for Plex is to help users make that viewing easier by selling subscriptions, similar to Amazon's Prime Video channels, or options. similar ones available on Apple TV or The Roku Channel, among others.
Williams admits that kind of functionality would be in the company's wheelhouse, but Plex hasn't decided to take that step yet. However, Plex still plans to launch the video and rental store that it previously teased as being on its roadmap before Covid complicated everyone's plans.
The new features are rolling out today to all Plex users, including free users and paid Plex Pass subscribers.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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