What you need to know
- Plex launched a new desktop app today.
- The revamped app will eventually completely replace Plex Media Player.
- Plex has also retired its Microsoft Store app in favor of this new version.
Plex today launched a new desktop app, simply called Plex. The new app is meant to take over as the main way to handle and watch all of your Plex content and it contains the same server and library management capabilities as the web app.
The new Plex app "has all the glorious player capability of Plex Media Player, plus an exciting new offline capability," according to the Plex team. What was previously called "Sync" is now just known as "Downloads," a way to download your media to your device to take with you on the go.
With the introduction of the new app, however, Plex is making some big changes regarding its Microsoft Store app and Plex Media Player. In regards to the former, the Plex Microsoft Store app is no more. Plex has retired it in favor of the new app. From Plex:
First, the Windows Store app. It's been a little broken for a while now. Back when we first started developing Windows apps, it made a ton of sense to embrace the ecosystem, but over time (👋 Windows Phone 💀) it made less and less sense to keep investing dedicated development resources to the Metro [sic] platform. We'd much rather invest the effort on a cross-platform app with a best-in-class player engine under the hood, so as of today we're taking our Windows app out of the store.
Plex says the new app is more capable than the Microsoft Store version and supports all of the platform's modern features.
As for Plex Media Player, it will continue to work and be supported through January 20, 2020. The new Plex desktop app will then take over as the replacement for Plex Media Player and it will stop receiving updates. Notably, the new app is lacking a TV mode, which is intentional. Plex says it is dropping TV mode in favor of supporting its apps across streaming boxes like the Apple TV and Roku for TV play.
The new Plex app is available to download now from Plex. The app is free, but you'll still have to have a Plex Pass subscription to use the offline download capabilities.
