Plex Introduces Camera Upload for iOS App

Personal media service Plex today rolled out enhancements to the web and iOS apps, allowing Plex Pass subscribers to use a new photo-related feature called Camera Upload to automatically upload and store photos from a device’s Camera Roll on a Plex media library.

Previously limited to Plex Pass members, Chromecast integration for Plex is now available to all users, for free. Chromecast support lets Plex locally beam media content (music, videos, and photos) to a television connected to a Chromecast device. For both the web and iOS apps, Plex now supports shuffling of all items in a section, which can be combined with filtering to, for instance, shuffle all songs available under Pop Rock.

Today’s big addition for Plex Pass members is Camera Upload: using iOS 7’s background functionality, Plex can automatically upload pictures taken with an iOS device to a Library on a Plex media server and into a specific album. There are settings to control upload with cellular data, and, overall, Camera Upload seems to be aimed at providing an effortless photo archival and streaming solution with sharing options rather than a dedicated photo management system such as the ones offered by Picturelife or Loom.

Camera Upload joins other Plex Pass features that allow Plex users to get more out of the service, namely Plex Sync (to keep media available offline on mobile devices), Cloud Sync (review), Multi-User Control, and early access to new features. Plex Pass is available at $3.99/month, and an update to the iOS app with support for Camera Upload is propagating now on the App Store.