Plex, the popular media server software with apps for web and mobile, today announced some big new features coming today for users. The first big piece of news is that Chromecast support is now available to all users for free after a brief preview period where it was only available to paying subscribers. The feature, which will allow users to stream content from the Plex mobile apps to a Chromecast, will become available through updates for the iOS and Android apps that should hit the App Store and Google Play any minute.
It’s also adding a new music shuffle feature coming first to the iOS and web apps that incorporates filters and the ability to edit play queues. The company said the feature is a “prelude to full-blown playlists for Plex”:
We’re happy to be introducing our play queues feature, which is—as you might have guessed—a prelude to full-blown playlists for Plex. As always, we don’t take new features lightly; what you’re seeing below is a shuffle of over 40,000 tracks, using the highest quality shuffle mechanism there is. It’s incredibly fast, even over a remote connection. And once you’ve created a play queue, you can easily add to or edit it… Quickly queue up all unwatched episodes, shuffle all episodes, or for example, I could also use our powerful filters to shuffle all unwatched movies rated G to protect Barkley’s sensitive ears while I write code, for you.
Lastly, Plex announced that it’s adding a new feature for paying Plex Pass members that will bring the ability to upload all photos from your camera roll automatically to a library:
It’s easy to explain: point the Plex app at a server and a photo library, and it’ll make sure all the photos on your camera roll automatically upload to that library. We do all the work for you, in the background, using a brand new iOS 7 feature. Keep your phone in your pocket, as your photos are backed up safely in a Plex library, and then you can access them on all Plex apps, share them with friends or family, or (of course) fling them to your Chromecast (free for everyone now!).
The updated Plex apps will be available for iOS and Android today.
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They’re still missing the boat on continuous play… I want to watch [all] the videos in a folder, not pick up my iphone to select the next video.. I’m lazy dangit!
Spoke too soon… I guess I got the “lazy” part down pat.
Is ChromeCast that good? Better than AppleTV (not price-wise)?
Don’t know about Apple TV but I like my Roku much better than my chromecast, I pre-ordered the new Roku stick which is due out in April.