Plex dropping Alexa Skill... what now?

General Discussions
1

So I’ve just received an email from Plex informing me that as of 15 June Plex will be disabling the Plex Skill from Alexa.

This is the way I access my local media library with Alexa and have been using it for years, so what is the alterntive?

TBH I’m getting a bit fed up with Plex’s lack of customer care and service removal and am considering switching to another service. It’s a real shame as I have used Plex for years for both music and video streaming but if this how they provide a service do their long standing customers - good luck to them!

2

Yes, very disappointing and frustrating - are there any alternatives out there at all??

3

Same here.

Absolutely gutted as this was the only way I’d found to play my own music library with multi-room options and routines.

It was the only reason I bought a lifetime Plex Pass and up until now I’ve been happy with that decision.

4

Seriously, I’m sick of this. I use the Plex skill every day on Alexa.

With the greatest sincerity, Plex and its developers and it’s direction can go fk itself

5

I’ve read that Emby is a better alternative but have not researched it enough to see if it will work with my LG Smart TV and Alexa

6

Just found mymediaalexa.com - small annual charge, but might be worth a look?

7

I use Plex on Alexa every single day. I wish this had been an announcement that Plex was being discontinued in order to announce Plexamp for Alexa. But I guess that ship has sailed. Perhaps it’s time to move to Jellyfin and self-host the skill. What a shame.

8

Yes a bit disappointing, I do use this occasionally and find it useful.

I wonder if Plex have to pay Amazon for the skill hosting and that’s part of the reason?

9

So, just downloaded and installed Emby only to discover that to use the Alexa Emby Skill requires Emby Premiere at £6.99 a month! Can’t win there then!

10

Plex keeps swearing up down that they aren’t enshittifying anything and that they aren’t going to get rid of the PMS at some point but they seem to forget that actions speak louder than words and so far their actions have been horrible all around.

I have locked my PMS and apps from updates and will continue to use the “good” versions until they no longer work or someone comes along to take their place. Jellyfin and Emby aren’t ready for me yet but they are catching up fast.

11

There’s definitely a give and take with this new but unsurprising announcement. Let’s not all forget that both Ambozon, Micro$lop, Apelle and G00gle all have their huge number of issues with their own API’s, the sunsetting of Alexa Skills for Plex was just one of the more anticipated due to how awful Alexa can be. Each and every company, including Plex have their investors interests at the top of the food chain here. I rather have Plex work on API’s that integrate better with Home Assistant, its open source. The failure here is on Amazon not playing nice with others, in particular with Plex.

Edit: I’m not sure how much of this played a role but IIRC, I could have sworn many of the digital assistant issues were plagued due to Plex Inc. not sacrificing their own user’s data being passed down to Amazon. Of course, things have severely changed since so I could definitely be misinformed currently.

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LMAO

I get you, but please realize the enshitification is happening at every level, at every company these days :joy: there’s no way to stop it unless we keep revolting like we do

12

I am finding myself with Home Assistant more and more likely to replace my Amazon Alexa with tablets.

13

I’ve now cancelled by subscription with Plex and sticking with Emby. It is for me now a far superior system in many ways.

14

Emby & Jellyfin are the 2 Ive heard of the most.

I havent tried either yet - would be interested in hearing about others experiences.

Somebody said Emby wants a monthly charge for Aelxa integration ? Thats rules it out for me. It looking more and more like Alexa needs to be binned and replaced with a Home Assistant device that is self-hosted and does what * I * want it to do, not some corporate PFY with a keyboard

15

I just received this notification and to say I’m PISSED is an understatement. I was debating which Amazon Echo Studio speaker to buy and went with the older 1st generation as that was the only one that supported Plex Skill. It works perfectly. I can ask it to do things the Plex Amp app cannot do.

The Plex Amp cannot do basic music features like All Songs by Artist that has been a request for 5 years yet they cannot keep any development on an app that works with AI and Amazon?

I already pay Plex monthly. What’s the best alternative to Plex Media Server on a NAS?

16

Kodi has an Alexa skill. Many mention Jellyfin as a Plex replacement. Is Kodi a worthy candidate? For music only and Alexa, what about Navidrome?

17

I also play my Plex library music through Alexa every day. Its been my primary way to listen to music for many years. This is extremely disappointing and I don’t believe the “low usage” excuse.

18

I can tell you my company has an Amazon skill for smart home integration and we do pay monthly bandwidth fees for that so… ya, guessing that’s the case here too.

19

I’m in the same boat as all of you. I use the Plex skill for my music library, and it’s amazing. I had committed to making Plex my music system for everything else, now I have no idea what to use.

20

Everyone saying they’ll depart Plex is what Plex wants. They got their money, and you have no guarantee of service. RIP: Podcasts, photos backup, Alexa skill.