Enabling Users to Explore Shared Streaming Activity: Introducing Plex Discover Together

Plex is expanding its Discover system by introducing a new community feature called Discover Together. This feature includes an activity feed that displays the streaming activity, watchlist additions, and ratings of your friends. Discover Together aims to encourage users to view Plex as a comprehensive streaming hub, potentially eliminating the need for third-party social tools such as trakt or Letterboxd.

At the center of Discover Together is your user profile, which now includes your watch history, recent activity, streaming metrics, and more. Through a dedicated activity feed, you can keep track of your friends' actions and engage with them by commenting on their activities, asking questions, or complimenting their choices (comments can be made on web and mobile platforms). If you come across a show that your friend is watching and find it interesting, you can add it to your own watchlist directly from the feed, or share it with someone else who might enjoy it. Additionally, you have the option to mute friends or family if desired.

Let's step back and look at the bigger picture. The majority of Plex's new features revolve around the "Discover" system. This system takes into account your streaming subscriptions (such as Netflix, Hulu, etc.) in order to provide more relevant search results and offer universal watchlist functionality. When you search for a movie on the Plex app, you will see a list of all the services where the movie is available. Additionally, many people use Plex for its ad-supported content selection. Although Discover Together may not be useful for those who only stream content from their media server, it can help the average user discover new content across all their favorite platforms.

For privacy reasons, the next time you open Plex, you will be prompted to choose your Discover Together preferences. You have the option to share your activity with everyone, no one, friends, or friends of friends. If you prefer to share your watchlist but hide your activity, there are various detailed options for you to choose from.

Plex has removed the option to search for other users by email, addressing privacy concerns. However, searching for a partial username will display all possible results. Additionally, you can search for users based on location or interests to connect with strangers or influencers. To protect your privacy, the privacy settings allow you to hide your account from searches.

In this update, Plex has introduced a "Report Issue" feature for shared media servers. For instance, if you accidentally download "The Little Mermaid" with Russian audio and someone else encounters the same problem while trying to watch the movie, they can click "Report Issue" in the movie's context menu to inform the server owner. The report can include a comment, and the server owner can respond with their own comments. Plex does not collect any data from the "Report Issue" system, so it will not be aware of the Russian version of the movie.

Discover Together strengthens Plex's position as the ultimate destination for all your streaming requirements. In addition to Plex's extensive universal search and watchlist capabilities, you now have access to a plethora of community features. The best part is that Discover Together is available to everyone, regardless of whether they have a Plex Pass membership, and it is being introduced across all playback devices.

Editor's P/S

As a Gen Z netizen, I am excited about the new Plex Discover Together feature. It will be great to see what my friends are watching and get recommendations from them. I think this feature will make Plex more social and fun to use.

I also appreciate that Plex is taking privacy concerns seriously. Users have the option to choose who they share their activity with, and they can also hide their account from searches. I think this is important, as people should be able to control their own data.

Overall, I think Plex Discover Together is a great new feature that will make the platform more enjoyable to use. I am looking forward to trying it out!