Plex launches a new app just for photos

Four years ago, Plex launched Plexamp, a standalone app focused exclusively on streaming music. This was one of the first times the company created an app to do one thing, as opposed to the main Plex app, which streams movies, TV shows, music, and more all under one roof. Plexamp became an immediate hit and is still one of the biggest reasons Plex Media Server owners stick with Plex.

Today, Plex is rolling out a new app called Plex Photos, and it’s aiming to repeat the success it had with Plexamp. As one would expect, Plex Photos allows you to view and organize the photos you have stored on your Plex server. This will allow you to always have access to those photos without needing to take up space on your smartphone.

Obviously, most people reading this already use Google Photos to view, back up, organize, and search through their photo library. However, not everyone likes being in the Google ecosystem. Additionally, once you move past the 15GB of free storage (which is pretty easy to do for shutterbugs), you’ll need to pay Google a monthly or annual fee for more storage. Plex solves both of these problems, allowing you to keep Google away from your photos and never need to worry about a storage subscription fee.

That being said, Plex Photos — in its current state — is no match for the feature-rich Google Photos. The app is quite anemic, lacking fundamental features like the ability to search for a specific photo in your library. However, the app just launched today in beta form, so this is very much a work in progress.

Plex plans to launch the public version of Plex Photos in Q4 2024. This version will include “additional features that weren’t ready” for this beta release and “improvements based on your feedback.” Simultaneously, it will eventually remove support for both music and photos in the main Plex app, pushing users to standalone apps for everything except movies, TV shows, and interacting with other Plex users.