Google Assistant integration

Plex Labs
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1

I know that this has been requested/reported many times before in the past, but maybe things have changed in the recent years, so I want to start a new try with this:

Please add Google Assistant integration to Plexamp.

For me this is not only a comfort feature but rather quite important for the following reason: Whenever I use Plexamp in my car using AndroidAuto, I can do so, which is already great. I have to rely on my offline downloaded music though, as my server is not available from the internet (so perhaps this is relevant to consider, that also offline data is included in the search and no connection to the server is necessary).

When driving, I obviously can’t interact with the dashboard to search for songs, so I have to rely on voice assistants to do so. In Android Auto, that’s Google Assistant. When I say “play xy on plexamp”, i get the confirmation that it tries to do so, but nothing happens.
Whenever I want to play a certain song, I have to pull over and search for it manually, which is obviously super annoying.

I understand that this can be tricky, but I think that Google has improved the ways developers can integrate with assistant in the recent time, and provide good documentation on this.

Being a developer myself, I’d be happy to contribute and help with this functionality, but it seems like plexamp is closed-source.

I am sure that plexamp will greatly benefit from this feature and make a lot of users happy.
Integration with the most common assistants seems important to me not only for playing music in the car, but also in other contexts and most importantly, to increase accessibility to more users, as many are dependend on alternate interfaces to interact with an app.

I’d be glad to hear about your thoughts on this one :slight_smile:

10 Likes
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Could not agree on this need/request more! I use google assistant (and google home) for most things in my life (home speakers, android auto, my phone, streaming dongle, etc.) and the inability to access Plexamp fully in this ecosystem absolutely kills me!

The accessibility angle is so key as well:

  • When friends/family who are differently abled ask whether Plex is right for them, I can’t always say yes.
  • When I’m driving or on a bike and need voice control for safety/legal reasons, it isn’t there.
  • When I’m not in the room but a guest wants to skip a song that’s playing, they aren’t able to.

It’s 2025, we’ve GOT to have Plex(amp) integrating properly with the world’s most popular mobile operating system by now!!

5 Likes
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Oh god yes! Please!

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Yes, this would be greatly appreciated!

2 Likes
5

Please add this. I never use plexamp because of this issue.

2 Likes
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Assistant on its way out in favour of Gemini?

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That’s right! However, in my understanding that’s just the Backend that changes, e.g. that the assistant-functionality will output better results. However though, apps will likely still have to provide an interface so that an assistant implementation can interact with them (e.g. enter keywords into search, gather a list of results, select tracks etc)

8

Yes please

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Please add me to the list of Plex Pass users who would love to integrate our Plex servers into their Google Home ecosystem.

I am a YouTube subscriber but I am quite disappointed with some of the music versions served by YouTube. The ability to request my preferred version of the music from my Plex collection would be very much welcomed.

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Yes please! With the newest google maps update and muci switching from plex to plexamp (why???) it’s basically unusable.

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To make plexamp work with Android Auto and also Google integrations better a solution is needed. It’s impossible to tell Google hands free in the car to play songs with plexamp she doesn’t know what it is and since it can’t be set as a default service it fails. I recently purchased a subscription due to the license changes. As a now paying Plex subscriber from the free space I would really love to see this get the attention it deserves. Plex is a great service and fills a space in the market. The android auto integration and offline for music is fairly good but to make it so we don’t all get in an accident trying to switch songs yelling at Google getting frustrated and using our phones defeating the purpose of this. Please take this request seriously it is needed and not that much work for a team to handle.

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Google assistant is apparently being slowly discontinued and Google is releasing gemini for android auto: Driving just got more productive — and fun — with Gemini and more

@elan please look into this gemini app integration for Android/Android Auto.

It would be great to ask gemini “what Metallica albums I have on my plexamp?” and then it gives me a list of available albums through Gemini, and then you select one “play album X from Metallica on plexamp” for example. This would be great and doesn’t steal your attention from driving.

Spotify already has this app extension: Here's the full list of Gemini extensions and what they can do

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looks pretty cool, as far as I can tell they are first party or invite only at the moment?

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Yes, hope a Jira EPIC was raise on the Change

1 Like
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Yep, we absolutely need to have this feature in 2025. I’m enjoying the benefits of upgrading to PlexPass but it could be so much more. I note that under Google Assistant’s music service options are YouTube Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and Deezer. Does their inclusion mean that they pay Google a kickback from advertisement and subscription revenues?

There is a mention, right at the bottom of the list, for ‘Other music services’ with the bold claim ‘you can ask your Assistant to use any music app on your phone or tablet’, but this isn’t a selectable option and just seems included for information only.

Well, we can /ask/ but with Plexamp we seemingly /do not get/!!

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Giving this a bump because I completely agree. I ride a motorcycle with a communicator in my helmet which means my hands are a little tied up most of the time.
Also, the only way to play music from my phone in my car is through AUX.
Both of these make assistant the only good way to play/ search for music while operating either of them.

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100% agree. Loving plexamp, but it’s frustrating not to have voice control.

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Absolutely critical that this feature is added. There have been starts and stops of similar connectivity in the past through home assistant, which was fine for my use case. It would be even better it it worked without HA for all the other use cases mentioned here. Would like to see the money for the plexpass go to something useful rather than deprecating features.

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You might need to ask Google. Last time we checked, it wasn’t possible to add support for music voice commands unless you were an official streaming service (as opposed to Siri on iOS).

If that’s changed, we’re happy to look into it, but we’ve expending a fair bit of effort in the past and never gotten anywhere.

1 Like
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Hi Elan,

It was my understanding that anyone can create an integration into Google Assistant/Gemini. You develop the API and then register it with Google and it becomes available to the public. I don’t know what, if any, costs may apply.

One of the big issues is the authentication that needs to be done to link the Google and Plex services. Here Plex has a great advantage as they already handle all the user authentications. So for Plex the link to the “Works with Google” system they just need to give Google their side of the API to work with the existing Plex servers.

Here are some links that may help:

There are a number of existing device types that Plex could use for their interface into the Google Ecosystem.

Google has now announced that Gemini should be coming to Google Home devices in October 2025. (This may only apply to the USA but I hope there will be wider availability.) It is already available on other platforms. I hope that Plex’s development work could start now so that Plex can be ready to ride any potential wave of home automation via Gemini interest. I suspect that any development should also work with the current Google Assistant as well (for those of us not in the USA who may need to wait longer for Gemini :wink: ).

Regards Ian.

3 Likes