According to the latest blog post, PLEX is going to remove visual plugins very soon from the eco system. Along with several other features they are removing this is one of the worst decisions they have made.
So, Plex, why are you removing one of the last possibilities to customize and extend PLEX with own implementations? It might be that only ~2% of the users are using it, but they ARE using it.
If you want to discontinue the current API/implementation, please provide an alternative.
BTW.: Your marketing guys are very clever. The āmost importantā feature drop is not named in the email newsletter. People are only aware of it if they are reading the blog post too.
Not only that, theyāre calling this a treat ! Why would any 3rd party developer want to build on their platform if this is how they treat them. 2% might sound like a small number but in terms of users they are probably around half a million users, so why o why would you pull an actively used feature without providing an alternate.
I wonder how many percentage users use forum ? Please feel free to shut this as well if its less than 20% because its really a waste of time and resources the way things have been going onā¦
EDIT: I felt better to update here than posting new but I guess this says itā¦
I did make my restrained/conservative estimate based on WebTools and some initial numbers I had when I was involved with the cCloudTv project.
4 years back a Kodi dev. told me something like this would happen when he was trying to convince me to code for Kodiā¦ I was a Plex fanboy thenā¦ its fast wearing off now. Sighā¦
There are so many plugins we all use to provide proper integration with many other systems. For me the Trakt.tv integration is a musthave for every media server / player. It is my complete history of shows, episodes and movies that i have watched. And because I change what i watch a lot, this is my lifeline!
Removing Plugins is a bad move on your part, a part of your strength was that Plex could be used on all platforms and could be used with even more if you just used a simple plugin. If the current structure of the plugins doesnāt work, UPGRADE itā¦ Deleting my my must need functions could be something that drives me from Plex to another system. Even though the learning curve for all my users will be steepā¦
Will the iTunes plugins also disappear? Or will they be folded into the Music and Video libraries?
I have to say, I much prefer using the iTunes channels over Plex own music library, since Plex struggles with very large libraries (Plexās cache folder with album art becomes absolutely humongous like tens of GBs, which my SSD doesnāt like)
Iām in the same situation as @mderksen, the last version of plugins support will be my last. I use/made plugins as video web crawlers to view streaming content. They have features that i suspect are less popular than plugins that could be cut down as an alternative.
This approach of plex seems to me a play to block people of developing āextraā features that they may want to include in plex pass in the near future. They want to develop services (like some plugins offer) so they can charge them and i understand that. Iām starting to regret paying for lifetime plex pass because i suspect i may move to an alternative soon.
I really really hope they will change their mind about this. The plugin support is what makes Plex a complete product, it allows me to augment the missing functionality with the missing features that i donāt see Plex adding themself
First, you have to come clear about what will happens to plugins. Since you were pretty sneaky about it on the blog and the press release.
I Assume:
Plugins wont go anywhere.
There will be no more support to plugins.
Is that is the case, please do a new maintained/documented plugin system before really deprecate them, so third party can be onboard, otherwise, its a sad slap in the face and a disservice to any third party developer and users, that helped you platform grow so far.
Its understandable, from a developer view, you want to change things in Plex without worrying breaking some plugin. But having a clear roadmap, what will happens next. Will help us all.
I think theyāre missing the big picture here. This could be a opportunity for Plex to gain more traction.
Think about the IOS AppStore. You could have a thriving ecosystem, if you do plugins right with good documentation developers will come.
I understand the need of Plex of going mainstream, and privacy/piracy issues that plugins might generate. But, letās not fool ourselves, plex media is almost always a gray area, and plugin repository/store can be curated.
I donāt know what is going through Plexās leadershipās mind.
Itāe going down the tubes fast. First the new awful UI. Now they are sun setting Plug Ins and Watch Later.
Little by little the focus continues to shift away from personal media and free media and more into revenue generating schemes.
While I have had and continue to have issues with Plex I do wonder why folks seem to be way over the top in their expressed hatred. I have to wonder what āawful UIā people keep talking about? I use Rokus primarily and the new Roku beta has the best UI I have ever used for Plex and my Fire TV and Shield TV are both at the āOKā stage as well. Even the web UI is at that āOKā stage.
Also I used āWatch laterā for a while but I have found that there are much better ways to watch content I can watch that way so I have quit using āWatch later.ā
I do have a concern about the plugins issue but it has nothing to do with watching content but rather with plugins like āTrakt TVā that I use to sync content between servers. But if it goes away I can live with it as syncing manually is quite possible when needed for me.
I do not see how the removal of plugins in any way indicates a shift away from āpersonal mediaā and as far as āfree mediaā is concerned I can access any legal free media I want without plugins at all.
I have said for a LONG time that Plex is making a mistake by trying to be everything for everybody and, maybe, this is an indication of Plex actually moving back toward sanity.
To me Plex needs to focus on what they have stated is their focus and that is āYour media, your way.ā The removal of little used peripheral functionality is a step toward putting Plex back where it belongs, that is, accessing and playing local media.
