I will count this one as Developmental Oversight and unintended consequences, to be kind. That feature, which worked fairly well on the whole (could be improved) is literally the ONLY reason we decided to purchase Plex Pass! None of the other currently available options (Jellyfin, Emby, etc.) do it as well and are as easy to implement (not that naming MP4 files that Plex likes is easy). Keep in mind that it serves handicapped folks as well as casual video watchers. Bottom line: dropping this feature is, IMHO, a serious mistake. I hope you will restore it IMMEDIATELY, so it can be used until you can implement an appropriate replacement. Regards, SKF
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I will never, ever understand the removal of Watch Together. As someone in a long distance relationship, it was a lifesaver. I hate Plex now and the damage they’ve done.
Yes, real damage. Watch Together was an almost nightly thing for my long distance partner and I. One of us would have an invite queued for the other and we’d chat or call as we watched. Almost every night. My partner found the convenience of it amazing, and now that it’s gone, they don’t want to watch things anymore because she usually had to pause frequently for her pets, food, etc.
I ■■■■■■■ hate Plex now. ■■■■■■■ stupid change.
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Removing watch together is removing the single reason I am using Plex. Watch together, even though it wasn’t implemented nicely, was something I used daily. To have it ripped away like this is very painful. I hope you guys reconsider.
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This is quite a bad road to pick. Like watch together is a basic (for me) feature that I’ve always used. I normally use the Web UI which still supports it to watch some shows with loved ones. Unfortunately, one of them is now relying more on a mobile device, and we are no longer able to watch stuff together as we used to be. This is quite dissapointing, and I still don’t understand the reason behind the removal of this feature.
The price of the pass is raising up and we are getting less features. I did pay for the plex pass because I’m a strong beliver that it was the best software out there. Not going forward, I’m not too sure, since well, at this rate we might lose some more features.
Hopefully this feature can be added back to the plex mobile app.
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Just discovered that this feature is missing as my app updated a couple days ago. My son and I use this feature every week. Super disappointed that it’s been removed.
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NEED ADVICE: As I have posted recently the loss of Watch Together is creating major problems for my wife, who has low vision. The only thing that was working for us was using a pair of iPad pro tablets and using Watch Together. I have done some testing and the largest screen she can see in any functional way is 24 inches, and then only if the TV is very close (30 inches or less) and the resolution is high (1080P). One possible option then would be to find a small TV that size or smaller that can work with Plex. We can then sit together in our living room and view saved movies together. It’s not as comfortable as two iPads, but it can work. My problem is finding a small reliable TV that can access Plex on my PC. I have done a LOT of looking online, but very few companies make small TVs these days. Vizio does, but their Amazon reviews are not all that good. Can anyone recommend an 18 to 24 inch smart TV that might be a good choice for us?
Is there a way to do it with a monitor instead of a TV? What would that involve?
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Look into using the ipad pro with a “USB C to HDMI Multiport Adapter Cable with Charging Port.” Run an hdmi cable to the monitor and you can keep the ipad charged at the same time.
From what I hear the new app doesn’t support native HDMI Out anymore, it will just fallback to screen mirroring.
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Maybe the same as what TheLivingBubba suggested but assuming you are using a streaming stick/box, perhaps you could get away with using a HDMI splitter? One output would continue to the TV and the second to a HDMI/USB Video capture card that then goes to the iPad?
Thanks for all the thoughts! What I have discovered as a work-around, hoping Plex will either restore Watch Together or implement a different feature that will do the same thing, is as follows: We have a large screen (60-inch) smart Samsung tv downstairs my wife can actually see fairly well - IF she sits right around 30 inches from it. That fits her vision range limits well enough that she can follow images about as well as she could see them on her iPad Pro. I didn’t think that would work, but it does. I just connect the tv to my iPad Pro with an HDMI to USB-C adapter cable and then open Plex and we can watch all of our movies and other videos on that tv. I just put a couple of comfortable chairs close to the tv and we can now watch together again. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a reasonable alternative. It helps that we happened to have that particular tv, so my only cost is the adapter cable. 
As an interesting side note, I was able to also install the Plex client app on the tv and access Plex on my PC. That could bypass the need for my iPad Pro, but the image quality on the tv is noticeably better when I use the iPad Pro. I suspect that because the tv via WiFi is not quite as seamless as the nice image on my iPad and the direct wire connection to the tv. Just a wild guess. So far, it’s working for us, especially for my wife with her low vision. I am still hoping Plex will repent and restore some form of Watch Together capability. That would be the right thing to do for folks with vision handicaps and other who really benefit from being able to share videos within the home.
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I agree, getting rid of the watch together in the new experience was the worst possible thing they did. Most used feature for me. Super dissapoining, why would they do something silly like that???
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I’ve been scrolling this thread for a little while, but so far aside from a couple of returned messages from individual users, I can’t see Plex has made statement about Watch Together coming back. Has someone else seen such a statement? Or has it just stayed with “we might bring it back later”?
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I’m sorry, Plex, but did increasing the prices on customers make it somehow harder for you to provide them the services they pay you for?
-A “customer”. As in the people who give you money.
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I did not know axing this feature was a thing until today. It’s a feature I use every day and the reason I got a Plex Pass. Unbelievable!
Time to start exploring some alternatives…
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Watch together was how I spent a lot of my time with my then long distance girlfriend, who’s now my spouse. We both moved to a different country and it’s how we now spend time with my parents and sister. Please bring it back. I’ve been a plex pass lifer since longer than I can remember, since before I could reasonably justify affording it. This is such an inconvenience in the moment I need it the most to connect with my non technical family. I could’ve made it work with my very technical partner. I can’t make it work with my parents that can barely open the Plex app on the Apple TV and find the Watch Together UI.
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I’ve just discovered that Watch Together was dropped from my iOS app after an update. It’s an extremely sad development and frankly was one of the main reasons that I kept using Plex even after everything this platform went through in the recent years. If this was some sort of community driven open source project I would totally understand that, but since this is a paid service I think the only reasonable path for me would be cancelling my Plex Pass which I was using for nearly a decade at this point.
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I purchased a plex pass specifically for this feature. If this feature goes away, so does my need for Plex.
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As a Lifetime Plex Pass subscriber, I am deeply disappointed by the decision to remove the “Watch Together” feature from the new Plex experience. This feature has been instrumental in keeping my long-distance family and friends connected, allowing us to share movie nights and maintain our bonds despite the miles between us.
The removal of such a valuable feature feels like a step backward, especially for those of us who invested in Plex for its robust personal media capabilities and the promise of a comprehensive media experience. While I understand the need for app modernization, it’s disheartening to see essential functionalities being sidelined.
I urge the Plex team to reconsider this decision and prioritize the reintegration of “Watch Together” into the new app experience. Even if it requires a Plex Pass subscription, many of us would be willing to support its continued development and maintenance.
Please don’t let this feature go away.
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I, like others, purchased Plex Pass because of this feature. Please add it back!
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I’ve been a loyal supporter, subscribed for years and recently purchased a lifetime license. Do the right thing and reinstate this feature. If I buy a lifetime license for something I expect the product baseline to be as it was when I made that purchase. Plex has a lot of brand loyalty but if you are going to remove features people have had for years or put features behind paywall that goodwill won’t last long. When I started using Plex Emby was the only alternative. Now there is a lot of competition, and some of it is open source. If you degrade the product we paid for people will migrate to those competitors. If there’s really no desire to reinstate watch together support plugins again. Removing plugin support and then stripping functionality is really ■■■■ thing to do.
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