Plex can now be controlled with your voice via Amazon Alexa

The popular media server software Plex just got more useful, if you have the required hardware. The company announced today that you can control Plex software with your voice via Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant. This support will work with Amazon’s lineup of Echo connected speakers, along with its Fire TV devices and Fire tablets.

Once you enable the Plex skill on Alexa, you can sit down on the couch and say something like, “Alexa, ask Plex to play Star Trek Beyond”. Your Plex-enabled smart TV should then start playing the latest movie in the Kelvin timeline series if you have it set up on your Plex server. If you have any music stored in the server, you can also play it by saying something like, “Alexa, tell Plex to play music by Bob House of Marley.”

If you don’t know what you want to watch, the new voice support can be used as well to help give you choices. You just say, “Alexa, ask Plex to suggest something to watch” to bring up a list of videos. If you already have a queue of videos that’s ready to go, but you forgot what’s in that list, you can say, “Alexa, what’s on deck?” to show what’s included. You can also use the new feature to pause or stop a track with your voice as well.

In related news, Plex has added a new feature to its media server called Webhooks. Basically, people can use Webhooks to automate actions when they play or rate a Plex media file. For example, when you start playing a movie, you can have a Webhook set up to your connected lights so they dim the second the movie starts playing. You can also set up webhooks to send posts to social media accounts, or even to messaging systems like Slack, to let the outside world know you are watching the latest episode of The Flash.

Do you own an Alexa-based device? If so will you use it with your Plex software? Let us know in the comments!