I’d like to merge few existing topics (one, two) inside Feature Suggestions part of the forum.
I’m using the TV App with BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime videos — and I’m extremely happy with what unite interface for both apps, and I believe it would be nice to be able to have my Plex videos here.
Is anyone aware of any 3rd party app that already does this for local media/content? I suspect that Apple may be limiting this to content providers but I don’t know for sure…
I’m not aware of any, unfortunately. But, tbh, I don’t use any other local-media-servers except Plex.
At least for Plex Pass users, I believe, it should be possible to do some improvements on the plex.tv side, if it’s really required 
+1 found it very useful
It really would be fantastic if Plex supported the Apple TV app along with other things like the system wide search functionality.
With the release of iOS 13 (and the updates to the AppleTV), the TV app seems to have expanded features. It’s possible the API to integrate has been improved. Any word from Plex?
yes, it would be very useful if plex is integrated in the tv app
This would be a great feature. The TV app is so handy.
+1 id love this
With so many different places to stream from now the TV app is very useful, hope this feature comes soon!
I would love this feature.
I believe this is a feature thats not going to come to fruition.
From what I understand, integration with the TV app is not something you can achieve just by using some API. An underlying agreement has to be made with Apple.
Now the TV app, awesome as it is, seems more than anything like a way for Apple to gateway users into renting iTunes movies. They are advertising the ■■■■ out of their own content in there so I dont see them making deals with companies that first and foremost focuses on locally stored media.
Doing a search on the topic led me here.
I’d like to add my support to the idea of SOME Plex integration with Apple TV’s ecosystem.
It would be nice to have Plex’s “On Deck” feed Apple’s “Up Next” section in Apple’s TV app. But I’d also like, even more, to see the Apple TV’s “Search” function be able to search my Plex library. I know Apple likes deals with providers and that’s why you’ll not see Plex as a ‘Channel’ - but Netflix refuses to integrate in any way with Apple’s ecosystem EXCEPT when it comes to “Search”. If Netflix can do it, I suspect it’s possible for Plex.
With the pandemic-fueled massive increase in streaming and cord-cutting, it’s another avenue for Plex to “get out there”.
This looks like it would be possible.
Apple’s Apple TV App Documentation:
You shouldn’t get your hope too high based on that session. If you read the transcript you’ll notice this feature is targeted for a central metadata integration/feed of a video / content provider – not individual servers or users of an app.
If I’ve been reading this correct, Plex is even offering this for their own Video on Demand service – however last I checked it was only available in the US. For them to feed the content and metadata of YOUR server to Apple, Plex would need to lookup all the data of your server and create server-specific providers to Apple or bundle data from all libraries available to individual users… and that’s assuming Apple will even allow that kind of use case (ignoring if I’m necessarily ok with my server content being exposed that way – be it for myself or users I’ve been sharing with who might not even use Apple’s TV app).
I’m not saying this might not be an interesting feature… I just don’t think this is realistic based on the current scenarios.
I know this comes up regularly but here’s hoping for updates with the next tvOS version that can make Universal Siri Search available and bring integration with the Apple TV app. These features just make it easier to surface my content along side content from my different streaming services without the need to go and look in multiple apps. With the addition of the new Live TV streaming channels being added it would also help bring that content to the fore.
Any update on this topic?
Any update on this topic?
Apple now has a public API for this, and a few of the other apps I am using have search functionality integrated already (such as Prime & Tubi).
Those features require the service to provide a metadata feed of all available content to Apple.
That’s not feasible for personally-hosted Plex Media Server content.
