Plex is enhancing its app experience with the launch of the Plex Photos app beta for iOS and Android. This dedicated app allows users to easily access their personal collection of photos. Moving forward, the main Plex app will focus on movies, TV shows, discovery, and its growing social media community. Additionally, Plex will continue to develop Plexamp as a dedicated app for accessing music from a Plex Media Server.
Initially available only on mobile devices, Plex Photos plans to expand support to more devices by 2025. The company aims to eventually remove photo and music access from the main Plex app by that time.
The rationale behind these changes was detailed in a Plex blog post. Plex noted that only a small percentage of its community uses music playback or accesses photos within the app, prompting the shift to dedicated companion apps to improve user experience.
While the dedicated photos app simplifies access to Plex pics, Plex will need to strategize on increasing usage of the Plexamp music app post-Tidal integration. Despite these changes, Plex remains committed to enhancing the multimedia experience for its users through dedicated apps and open APIs for developers to create new experiences.
As Plex evolves from a media organization platform to a comprehensive multimedia experience, the shift to dedicated apps will streamline the user interface and enhance performance. The company’s emphasis on companion apps extends to its developer program, offering opportunities for developers to innovate on the Plex platform with new apps such as e-books or podcasts.
