Plex has just announced support for Amazon Alexa. You can now control your Plex media library with your voice, controlling both music and video alike. All you need is any of the Alexa devices and a device on your network with Plex installed on it and you are ready to go.
You just have to search for and enable “Plex” in the skills screen within the Alexa app. It will then scan your account for related servers. If you only have one server under your Plex account, it will find it immediately and set it as your default. You can ask Alexa to change your server at any time by saying “ask Plex to change my default server”. Once it has a server assigned, it will ask about what player to use when you first issue a command. Else, you can tell Alexa to “ask Plex to change my default player” and get it over with.
You can tell Alexa to “ask Plex to play Suicide Squad” or “ask Plex to play music by the Eagles”. You can even ask Plex to recommend something to watch or listen to. It will then perform the command for you on screen.
Currently, as mentioned, you do need a Plex compatible device on the same network as Alexa for it to work. Alexa simply acts as a controller and your connected device is what plays the content you ask for. This can be something like a Roku or Playstation 4.
Here is a list of currently compatible devices:
- Amazon Fire TV
- Android (mobile)
- Android TV
- Apple TV
- iOS
- PlayStation 4
- Plex Media Player
- Plex Web App
- Roku
- Windows/Windows Phone
You do not have the ability to stream Plex directly to Alexa–which would make for the ultimate feature I’m sure most everyone is waiting for: the ability to stream your own music library to Alexa from your own network without having to rely on external hosting solutions such as Amazon Music’s limited upload support. Thankfully, Plex does acknowledge this on its website and states “We hope this will be a reality in the near future”. Well, we do too! If anyone can pull it off, it will more than likely be the brains at Plex.
This is Plex’s first dive into the world of home automation and it appears they don’t plan to just stop here. It will be fascinating to see what else they have planned in the near future.
