Plex apps add Chromecast support free for all users

Plex, the popular media server software with apps for web and mobile, today announced some big new features coming today for users. The first big piece of news is that Chromecast support is now available to all users for free after a brief preview period where it was only available to paying subscribers. The feature, which will allow users to stream content from the Plex mobile app to a Chromecast, will become available through updates for the iOS and Android apps on the App Store and Google Play today.

It’s also adding a new music shuffle feature coming first to the iOS and web apps that incorporates filters and the ability to edit play queues. The company said the feature is a “prelude to full-blown playlists for Plex”:

We’re happy to be introducing our play queues feature, which is—as you might have guessed—a prelude to full-blown playlists for Plex. As always, we don’t take new features lightly; what you’re seeing below is a shuffle of over 40,000 tracks, using the highest quality shuffle mechanism there is. It’s incredibly fast, even over a remote connection. And once you’ve created a play queue, you can easily add to or edit it… Quickly queue up all unwatched episodes, shuffle all episodes, or for example, I could also use our powerful filters to shuffle all unwatched movies rated G to protect Barkley’s sensitive ears while I write code, for you.

Lastly, Plex announced that it’s adding a new feature for paying Plex Pass members that will bring the ability to upload all photos from a camera roll on iOS automatically to a library.

The updated Plex apps will be available for iOS and Android today.