Plex for Apple TV gets a major overhaul

Media player Plex has updated its interface on Apple TV and Roku, bringing a mix of rich layout options that help create a more personalized experience for users.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Plex’s user interface updated, now called Modern Layout
  • The new interface is now available on Apple TV and Roku
  • It’s coming to Android TV and other platforms soon

A lifestyle photograph from Plex showing the modern layout on Roku
Image credit: Plex

Say hello to Plex’s Modern Layout

Dubbed Modern Layout, the new interface was heavily influenced by user feedback over several weeks. The redesigned interface better showcases title artwork while providing additional information like genre, parental ratings and a brief synopsis.

According to the announcement on the Plex blog:

We combined this rich data with a background color extraction process with a goal of providing a more immersive and streamlined experience when you’re sitting down at the couch and trying to figure out what to watch. Since posters generally have the movie or show title contained in the artwork, this layout also forgoes duplicating the (often truncated) text titles and additional information below the poster in favor of displaying that information in the “inline metadata” section at the top.

This results in a more personalized experience across various devices. The new Modern Layout interface is now available by updating Plex for Apple TV and Plex for Roku to the most recent version available.

Tips for setting up Apple TV the right way

The best thing about Plex’s refreshed interface? It’s extremely customizable so you can, say, create a high contrast experience optimized for poster browsing, a fully immersive layout that automatically adapts as you move through content and so forth.

How to customize Plex layout on Apple TV

Plex for Apple TV offers a plethora of options that will help you make Modern Layout your own. Within the app, go to Settings → Experience section to customize the following options to your liking:

  • Content Layout: Set layout options like whether inline metadata is displayed on the home screen and the poster is displayed on detail pages.
  • Modern: The new default, this shows you artwork and inline details about the title on some screens when focused on a poster. This layout also prefers background artwork over posters on title detail pages.
  • Classic: This is your previous user interface that doesn’t display inline metadata. You must click through to see the title and additional information below posters.
  • App/Home Background: This is where you choose your wallpaper for Plex’s home screen, settings and so forth.
  • Artwork Colors: Use this option to have Plex apply colors from the artwork of the current title to your background. This is the default option.
  • None: Switch to the default dark gradient background for the app.
  • Details Background: This setting controls the background displayed on the detail pages for items.
  • Artwork Colors: This setting, turned on by default, utilizes colors from the title’s artwork within the background on title detail pages.
  • Dimmed Art: Displays a full screen, dimmed version of the background artwork on detail pages.
  • None: Use the default dark gradient background for detail pages.

Plex’s new Modern Layout is coming soon to Android TV, and other major platforms thereafter.