Plex Launches 'Discover' and 'Universal Watchlist' Features to Help Users Find and Watch Content Across Streaming Services

Media management platform Plex today announced a new "Discover" feature that's designed to make it easier for people to find what they want to watch across different streaming services. With Discover, customers can add any TV show or movie into their Plex Watchlist, and receive information on where to find it.

plex discover
The feature will inform users which streaming service has the content that they want to watch, and if the user has a subscription to that service, the content can be watched directly from Plex. It's similar to how the Apple TV app works, but it is more universal because it does not require an Apple device, and it also works with all streaming services, Netflix included.

To go along with Discover, Plex is debuting the Plex Universal Watchlist, which is an all-in-one watchlist that lets customers keep track of anything that they want to watch. The Universal Watchlist will display newly available titles from shows that are still airing, and it will let users know where the content they want to watch is available.

plex watchlist
Plex says that its new feature set is meant to turn Plex into a one-stop shop for all media content. In addition to supporting watchlists and content from streaming services, Plex offers a selection of free, ad-supported TV shows and movies, plus it supports personal media libraries and live content.

More information about Discover and Universal Watchlist can be found on the Plex website. Plex is free to use, but upgraded personal media management features require the $4.99 per month Plex Premium package.

Tag: Plex

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

iPhone Foldable Display Said to Feature iPad-Style 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Friday March 28, 2025 3:44 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming "iPhone Fold" will feature a foldable screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, according to a Chinese leaker who previously leaked the book-style device's display dimensions. The Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station claims that Apple will adopt a "roughly" 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner display in order to achieve consistency between the outer display, as well as to ensure parity...

Top Rated Comments

MartyF81 Avatar
39 months ago

Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
I play 4K content via Plex every weekend. Works just fine for me. Streams from a NUC pulling the media files of a NAS... and plays on Apple TV's throughout my house over WiFi. 4K content does need quite a bit more CPU than 1080 content does though.

I am even able to stream it over the internet when I travel... though that is heavily dependent on wherever I am having a fast enough download bandwidth to handle it.... which is rare.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pi=e=3 Avatar
39 months ago

Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
No idea what you're talking about, I stream 4K HDR from my NAS (off a standard 10TB HDD, no SSD here) to my ATV Plex client all the time.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
archer75 Avatar
39 months ago

Plex still cannot play 4K content locally, without buffering, this involves no streaming over internet. SSD drive inside iMac running Plex on that same iMac.

I heard Plex is not designed to do this, Plex is maybe intentionally not focused on playing 4K content.

Just hoping against hope that one day, Plex will suddenly add “plays 4K content“ as a brand new feature.
plex plays 4k content locally just fine. Been doing it for years. Nor does it need an SSD. In fact I can stream multiple 4k streams on my local network and outside my home to friends and family simultaneously without issue.
It direct plays on my local network and to some of my friends/family who have supported devices. No transcoding needed and it uses no CPU for that.

If you're buffering then there's a problem with your network, or it's trying to transcode with a weak CPU/GPU due to a client not supporting the codecs it needs. But that's easy to see.

But 4k absolutely works just fine. I watch 4k content almost daily with it. Across a variety of devices.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MartyF81 Avatar
39 months ago
So I just installed the update and gave it a try.

You pick from a list which services you subscribe to and it lets you search their libraries. When you try to watch a show.... it pulls up a list of services and shows which ones you indicated that you subscribe to that have the content... and you pick the one you want to stream it from.

Then it passes you OUT of Plex App... and INTO the App for the streaming service... and right to the episode you want to watch.

I am not sure how it handles "Watched" episode tracking, havent watched any episodes yet.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AnotherOpinion Avatar
39 months ago
I love this… I wonder what their privacy policy is, and how they got Netflix to work with them, yet Apple can not. This is one of my favorite features of Apple TV, the Watch Now area. I think this Plex offering is a much-needed service now that there are so many streaming options.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
archer75 Avatar
39 months ago
Now that's a nice update!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)