Plex announced the expansion of its all-new Apple TV app preview, introducing enhanced discovery and community features for users while offering upgraded video streaming quality for Plex Pass subscribers. The announcements were detailed in a blog post on January 22, 2025.
Plex enhances Apple TV app with new features
One of Plex’s main focuses for 2025 is to enhance user discovery and community engagement. Users can now write and post reviews that are visible to others on Plex, as well as comment on reviews made by other users. This initiative aims to foster connections among users who share similar interests.
Users can access their Plex profile on watch.plex.tv, where they can choose to make it visible to anyone. By default, all Plex users are searchable by other users in the app unless privacy settings have been altered. If users opt for a public profile, they can share a link showcasing their viewing history and Watchlist.
Plex maintains that user privacy settings remain unchanged. Those who have opted out of being discoverable will not be automatically re-included in this feature. Within the app’s settings menu, users can choose to share their ratings and reviews with five different privacy options: Anyone, Anyone signed in to Plex, Friends of Friends, Friends only, and Private.
New Apple TV app features
Plex’s redesign of its Apple TV app follows a significant update for its iPhone app released last November. The app has been rewritten from the ground up to provide a more streamlined user experience, introducing an improved navigation system and enhanced visual elements, including larger artwork.
This update is described as a major technical overhaul, allowing Plex to unify its platforms under a single codebase. This unification aims to facilitate faster development of updates and new features in future versions.
Interested users can sign up for the new app by visiting the Plex forums to join the beta. A dedicated page on the Plex website outlines current limitations of the app, including missing features like casting and selective download options. Plex has acknowledged that the app is still in a developmental phase and is seeking feedback from the community to refine the experience.
Plex Pass subscribers gain HEVC support
Plex Pass subscribers are now able to access HEVC hardware encoding, which aims to enhance video quality without increasing bandwidth usage. The HEVC encoding technology improves visual quality at the same bitrate and allows for the preservation of HDR metadata, eliminating the need for tone mapping when streaming from a Plex Media Server.
Image credits: Plex
