Plex is best known as a means for streaming video content that’s housed on your computer to your connected devices, but its capabilities go well beyond that.
For a while now, Plex has been able to upload photos and videos captured on your mobile device directly to your Plex server if you’re a Plex Pass subscriber. While the feature worked, there wasn’t much to it — it was essentially a self-hosted version of Google Photos or iCloud Photo Library, both of which offered far more features than Plex.
That’s not the case any longer, though. Plex has improved its photo-syncing capabilities with a new method of structuring content and a feature update that makes it easier than ever to search through photos and videos uploaded from your mobile devices.
First up, photos and videos captured on your mobile devices are no longer stored in separate folders, as they had been in the past. Now, both photos and videos appear in your “Photo” library, where you can seamlessly browse through your media together.
Another new feature available to Plex Pass subscribers is an automated tagging system that uses machine learning technology to automatically apply tags to images. Much like Google Photos and iCloud Photo Library, you can now type in “Dog” and pictures of your pooch will pop up. Likewise, when browsing through your photos, Plex will show related photos based on the tags that have been applied to a particular photo.
In addition to these updates, syncing speed has been improved across the board. Plex says photos and videos will sync up to 300 percent faster than before.
If you’re not a Plex Pass subscriber, you can sign up here. You can purchase for $5 per month or for $40 per year, or you can buy a lifetime pass for $150.
