Uh oh… Well I’ll try it out when the play store beta link starts working for me but I’m glad I already have jellyfin set up.
Has anybody else been able to get into the beta and can report on how accessible personal media libraries are in the new app? I’m dreading having to remake my getting started guide that I send to friends with more steps than just “pin my library and unpin the ad supported crap”.
Edit:
For personal media pros, we’ve centralized media libraries into a dedicated tab. With the option to favorite libraries and easily access power-user features, it becomes a more personalized experience, with more exciting updates to come!
I hope this means pinning is just turning into favoriting to enable personal content to show up in the main views similar to how pinning currently enables personal media to show on the home tab… And hopefully you will still be able to remove the free ad supported content…
Edit 2 electric boogaloo:
They posted the APK so I’ve taken a look and here’s what I found that I think is important:
Favorited libraries basically works the same as pinned libraries - so your personal media is mixed into the home screen just like the current app
There is no unpinning of live TV or Plex free movies/shows so it gets mixed into the home screen by default, and from discussions in the forums it sounds like that isn’t planned (yet), so as it is now the only way to remove those is to disable it account wide in your Plex account. Not ideal so I hope they bring back unpinning.
I tried the iOS beta. There’s a Libraries tab on the bottom now. Honestly, I haven’t used the mobile app enough to tell if it’s better or worse. I think it might be better?
Current App - Home Tab > (top left) Menu > choose a library.
Beta App - Libraries Tab > (top left) Menu OR Libraries again > choose a library.
I guess the difference is that on the current version you can access your libraries right from the launch (Home) screen but on the beta you have to tap the Libraries tab first.
“Pinning” 📌 is now “Favoriting” ♡.
I find the Home and Libraries tabs to be confusing. They’re too similar.
I’m guessing they’re trying to “clean up” situations where people have lots of shared libraries cluttering up their sidebar. I don’t mind it that much since I rarely go into a specific library since all of the content is combined on the home screen. But yeah it does add extra friction if you want to go into a specific library.
I am more concerned that, based on the forum comments, they are making it harder to hide the ad supported content and rentals, as you can’t unpin those from the app and instead need to go on desktop and disable them from your account settings. And it sounds like they don’t plan on adding the ability to unpin Plex content from within the app. Maybe it’s not so bad since changing your account setting is more permanent and doesn’t need to be done every time you log into an app on a new device, but I don’t like needing to do it on desktop instead of having the ability within the app.
The other issue is that I had intended on sharing family movies and pictures with my family using Plex. It would be nice to share holiday playlists too. As it current is, Plex would be an awesome platform to do that. I often show up to a family event, install Plex on their Apple TV or Chrome stick and have family movies and photo slideshows playing in the background.
Now it seems the future of using Plex to share media with family is no longer going to be feasible. If I have to tell them to install and sign into three different apps - one of them now primarily focused on being a streaming service - there’s just no way that’s going to happen.
But, as I said in my comment in the forum, the mobile app is the least of my concerns. I just hope they don’t mess everything else up.
I don’t mind the streaming services. I use Pluto and Tubi a lot, mostly because the service in Plex is slow and low quality. If this update improves that service, I’d be happy to use it.
Uh oh… Well I’ll try it out when the play store beta link starts working for me but I’m glad I already have jellyfin set up.
Has anybody else been able to get into the beta and can report on how accessible personal media libraries are in the new app? I’m dreading having to remake my getting started guide that I send to friends with more steps than just “pin my library and unpin the ad supported crap”.
Edit:
I hope this means pinning is just turning into favoriting to enable personal content to show up in the main views similar to how pinning currently enables personal media to show on the home tab… And hopefully you will still be able to remove the free ad supported content…
Edit 2 electric boogaloo:
They posted the APK so I’ve taken a look and here’s what I found that I think is important:
I tried the iOS beta. There’s a Libraries tab on the bottom now. Honestly, I haven’t used the mobile app enough to tell if it’s better or worse. I think it might be better?
Current App - Home Tab > (top left) Menu > choose a library.
Beta App - Libraries Tab > (top left) Menu OR Libraries again > choose a library.
I guess the difference is that on the current version you can access your libraries right from the launch (Home) screen but on the beta you have to tap the Libraries tab first.
“Pinning” 📌 is now “Favoriting” ♡.
I find the Home and Libraries tabs to be confusing. They’re too similar.
I’m guessing they’re trying to “clean up” situations where people have lots of shared libraries cluttering up their sidebar. I don’t mind it that much since I rarely go into a specific library since all of the content is combined on the home screen. But yeah it does add extra friction if you want to go into a specific library.
I am more concerned that, based on the forum comments, they are making it harder to hide the ad supported content and rentals, as you can’t unpin those from the app and instead need to go on desktop and disable them from your account settings. And it sounds like they don’t plan on adding the ability to unpin Plex content from within the app. Maybe it’s not so bad since changing your account setting is more permanent and doesn’t need to be done every time you log into an app on a new device, but I don’t like needing to do it on desktop instead of having the ability within the app.
The other issue is that I had intended on sharing family movies and pictures with my family using Plex. It would be nice to share holiday playlists too. As it current is, Plex would be an awesome platform to do that. I often show up to a family event, install Plex on their Apple TV or Chrome stick and have family movies and photo slideshows playing in the background.
Now it seems the future of using Plex to share media with family is no longer going to be feasible. If I have to tell them to install and sign into three different apps - one of them now primarily focused on being a streaming service - there’s just no way that’s going to happen.
But, as I said in my comment in the forum, the mobile app is the least of my concerns. I just hope they don’t mess everything else up.
I don’t mind the streaming services. I use Pluto and Tubi a lot, mostly because the service in Plex is slow and low quality. If this update improves that service, I’d be happy to use it.