Stop sending me and my server users spam. I’m exhausted of Plex’s testing the waters with ads and promoted content. This is only the latest in a history of annoying thirsty marketing features that the community has to rage against to get removed.
Today, paying and non-paying customers just went into their android notification settings cursing PLeX’s spam-forward outreach model, and wondering “Which category did that ad come from?”. And a number of us put ION on a “Do not trust list” for the same reason.
It would seem PLeX is pushing promoted ads from ION to our mobile devices now. Plex Pass or not. I paid $130 for a product that is at the whims of UX-unconscious marketers who don’t care about brand trust.
In light of the spam I got from the PLeX app today: “ION Streaming on PLeX” push ad pictured above, I’m requesting PLeX back-off this channel of outreach entirely for paying customers.
Before “Android notifications 101” is posted as a reply, remember, It’s not just a matter of silencing notifications, because plex, will continue precedent, and they will invent a new category and feed us spam through that next. It’s the principle I paid #130 for this, and they spammed the ENTIRE community today with ION.
Aside from PLeX pass, I’ve never wanted a single promoted product from PLeX. But I’ve spent effort, and cursed plex when they put them in my way, that has slowly invalidated the value of the purchase.
This is especially frustrating for paying customers who are exhausted of the constant spam and outreach that works-its-way into our paid experience. When will it end? Paid users need to be delivered from promoted garbage like ION.
Stop spamming your paying users or they will find another solution. Now my server users have to wade through these embarrassing notifications that confuse them as well! They contact me and say “Was this you?” Ugh! I wish I could be more constructive, but the ads I have to deal with every day have me so furious! I don’t need Plex adding to the pile!
Did you read the bold points in my post? I covered this in the post but to make it clear, this was delivered using a new category called “Plex Recommendations”.
Disabling some arbitrarily named category they just made does nothing to prevent future abuse. If Plex is ok with the precedent making new categories for spam at a whim, they will do it again.
And it’s not new. It’s been there for a while. The Ion channel is appearing because it’s new so it falls under the “Release” portion of that setting. Despite any personal feeling someone may have about specific channels or content, Plex is neutral on those types of opinions and is just highlighting a new popular channel.
Please note that when this setting was added, it wasn’t so Plex could send notifications, that could have happened either way. This setting allows users to turn them off.
On the age of the feature, a user on reddit claimed the category was brand-new. I assumed it was too, because I only saw it leveraged today, ever. Who cares what the age is? Enjoy the gotcha. Back to the topic at hand please.
Sharpshooting the age of the feature, alluding to my personal feelings passive-aggressively, and pointing to the docs doesn’t invalidate my argument.
Opt-in-by-default ads is a poor way to treat paying customers, and just telling us to “turn it off” is not acceptable if you want brand trust.
Furthermore, that setting is server-side. I’m specifically talking about the android-side “Plex Recommendations” notification category that has only sent me spam today. Your setting might be the root cause on a host’s server, but I’m talking about each user’s experience. The micro. The poor people we invite to our servers, whose default interface is an explosion of promoted content and pro-ad defaults.
Every user on earth who doesn’t know to disable this had to deal with this signal today. Stop spamming paying customers.
I get it, but keep in mind that you do not speak for all Plex users. There are many Plex users that do watch our ad-supported content and like to know when new content is available. For those that don’t, that’s why we provide the option to not see these.
I only saw it leveraged today, ever. Who cares what the age is?
My point is bringing up the age was to say that messages like these are not new. Why you only see these now?
Do you use Plex Home? Did you recently switch users on that device, maybe just to try something? Since the setting is unfortunately opt-out, switching to another user on your device would have enabled notifications. The notification you saw may have been intended for that user. Unfortunately, push notifications are not just for the currently signed in user. That’s not how push notifications work, it’s a device level yes/no.
Opt-in-by-default
Agreed. Plex has been working to change this mindset. But as mentioned, this is an old setting so it was released as opt-out. That can’t be changed now. Also keep in mind that you would only receive these notifications if you are also opted-in to our VOD and Live TV provider. This is an account level setting so it would affect all clients. If you are opted-out of these and still receiving the notifications, please confirm. That would be a bug and we can look into it.
Furthermore, that setting is server-side. I’m specifically talking about the android-side “Plex Recommendations” notification category that has only sent me spam today.
The setting I posted is for the Android client. There is a server-side setting for push notifications, but that’s only for event that occur on your server. This specific notification comes from Plex.tv for our ad-supported VOD and Live TV content. The server-side setting does not affect this. We do not promote every new channels, just ones we think users may like (all users, these are not targeted messages).
Sorry, since there’s extra settings the the android app, the android OS notifications screen has these categories: My best guess is this is how those above screenshotted categories you shared abstract to the OS? (Sorry for the lots of edits)
Cast
Plex Recommendations (Now disabled)
Media
Push Notifications
Sync
Thank you for the well-written reply and for processing the feedback. Have a nice holiday.
I never saw one of these before today. Glad to know there’s a way to turn them off server-side. You say that the ION ad is a recommendation, but it comes across as a paid promotion. I use Plex strictly for my own media; I’ve never streamed a single thing from these partnerships, and getting ads for them only makes me less likely to use them.
Ah. Those are the OS level notifications. My screenshot is from within the Plex app itself.
I can see that. But keep in mind that VOD and Live TV content are part of Plex now, whether a users uses it or not. It’s just another feature to Plex so we’re just promoting ourselves. It’s the same as promoting a Plex Pass PMS feature.
Maybe stop advertising services that users don’t care about unless they opt-in to advertising? In-house promotions are quite literally still advertising.
The fact that I had an advertisement popup on a paid service is abhorrent. Why did Plex,Inc turn on advertisement notifications by default?
I’m not going to say you are lying, but I am going to say this is absolutely not true. I have never, and never would, ever allow a push notification for an advertisement. Plex,inc is really killing it by punishing their paid users with advertisements. good job.
