Plex’s overhauled app promotes libraries, ditches the hamburgers

Tired of digging through so-called “hamburger” menus on the Plex mobile app to get your personal Plex media library? If so, good news. 

Plex is kicking off a public preview for its revamped Plex mobile app, and from what I’ve seen so far, it offers welcome changes for those of us with personal Plex libraries of movies and TV shows. 

Among the best changes in the revamped app is what’s no longer there: the three-line “hamburger” menu in the top corner that included everything from the Plex “watchlist” and “discover” features to ad-supported streaming video and—if you dig around a bit—your own Plex libraries. 

Now, you can jump directly to your personal Plex media via the dedicated “Libraries” tab in the bottom navigation, which now also includes “Live TV,” “On Demand,” and “Discover” tabs. 

Gone from the bottom nav are the “Trending,” “Activity,” “Find Friends,” and “My Profile” tabs that seemed designed to push users toward Plex’s growing—and controversial—array of social features. Social butterflies will still be able to connect with other Plex users via the Discover tab and the “streamlined” user menu. 

Plex is also promising “expanded” use of artwork within the new Plex mobile app, including title art for movies and TV shows “where available.” That’s a welcome change from the plain title text on current detail pages. 

The upcoming Plex mobile redesign is part of a broader app strategy that Plex first announced back in September.  

That strategy includes spinning off music playback and photo management into separate apps, with music being relegated to the (already existing) Plexamp app, while the Plex Photos app is currently in beta. 

Behind the scenes, Plex says it’s giving all its apps a top-to-bottom code overhaul, with the newly unified codebase leading—hopefully—to faster updates across platforms. 

I’ve yet to try the new Plex mobile app for myself, but as a Plex media server user who doesn’t care a whit about social, the broad strokes sound promising. 

That said, the opt-in public preview is missing some key features, Plex warns, including playlist and media-casting support. Plex says it plans on “closing those gaps” as the testing process continues. 

The new Plex app should emerge from its preview status by “early” 2025, Plex says.