Summary
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Plex’s Lifetime Pass recently went from $250 to $750, and these new social features feel like a poor justification for the cost increase.
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New social features include Lists, Discussions, Compatibility Score, emoji reactions, and more. includes
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Basic self-hosting users of Plex will probably prefer stability and metadata/plugin fixability.
Following the massive Plex Pass Lifetime subscription price increase, tripling the cost from $250 to $750the self-hosted media platform has unveiled several new, questionably useful social features in what appears to be an attempt to justify the price hike. This feels like another misstep by a self-hosted streaming app.
If he can create personalized Lists and Discussions may be useful to some Plex users, these are not features that will likely appeal to Plex’s core audience of self-hosted streaming enthusiasts. Other new features include Match Score, which aims to predict how much you’ll like a movie or TV show based on your past ratings and viewing history, and Content Reactions, which simply add emoji reactions to content. You can also now follow your friends, movies, TV shows, cast and crew and comment on content with photos. In a way, it sounds like Plex is trying to create its own version of Reddit.
However, not all of these functions are available now. A limited version of Lists has already hit Plex, with more functionality coming later this year. Discussions will take place later this month, while other announced social features will drop later this year.
Most Plex users probably don’t want more social features
The platform continues to lose momentum for Jellyfin
Look, I like putting emojis on things as much as the next person, but I don’t think the average Plex user cares about social features like this. They use the platform to stream movies and TV shows has been obtainedand despite the platform’s efforts to become more of a traditional streaming service, that’s pretty much it. A return of core functionality such as widespread plugin compatibility, better metadata editing, and perhaps more reliable offline syncing would probably be much appreciated. That said, the ability to follow your friends more closely could help with content discovery, even though you might already be able to do that.
Given the recent Lifetime Plex Pass price hike, this feels like another misstep for the once-dominant streaming platform, and I wouldn’t be surprised if such a move convinces more users to jump ship for open-source, free alternatives like Jellyfin.
