For example, the Plex skill didn’t understand when I asked it to “play the newest episode” of a show (or “play the latest episode”), in both cases saying it couldn’t find the first episode of that show. There were a couple minor glitches, though. You can even have Plex recommend what to watch or listen to next, complete with slightly snarky commentary–when I turned down listening to a new song, it then suggested I instead go with an old favorite which it commented I had listened to a lot. You can ask what’s in your On Deck listing (which is Plex’s version of the Up Next feature that Apple added in its TV app), what you recently added to your library, or what you left off watching. You can have Plex play back a specific movie, album, or TV episode. Once the setup’s done, there are actually quite a few commands available in the skill. But eventually after waking it up and opening the Plex app (and opening the Plex app on my iPhone and on the web), I was finally able to set the Apple TV as my default player. The latter was where I ran into my first hiccup: I intended to set my Apple TV as the default player, but at first it wasn’t detected–presumably because the set-top box was asleep.

But wait, there’s more! After that, you have to set both your default server and player. First you have to enable it, then log in to your Plex account, then authorize Alexa to access your Plex account. The Plex skill is definitely one of the more complex third-party features I’ve used. The verdict? Definitely shows some promise–though it’s hampered by a few limitations, not all of which are under Plex’s control. So I fired it up and quickly ran it through its paces. So today’s announcement by Plex that it was rolling out an Alexa skill allowing control of your media library took me by surprise.

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.Įven though I’ve been waiting for the much-anticipated Sonos-Alexa integration, it hadn’t occurred to me that I could be using my Amazon Echo in conjunction with other media. Plex enables voice control of media via Alexa

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