On Friday, Plex will end support for podcasts, a feature it added in 2018. Plex is also removing the dedicated Web Shows section, but most of this content will still appear elsewhere in the app.
Plex doesn’t explicitly say why it’s ending podcast support, only that it’s no longer worth the company’s time. “As part of our ongoing effort to make sure we’re spending our time and energy in ways that best serve our awesome user community, we’ve made the decision to end support for Podcasts and Web Shows within Plex,” reads the announcement from the company. “We recognize this decision will impact several of you greatly, and we apologize for the inconvenience it will cause. You can continue to access these features within Plex until Friday, April 15th, 2022, at which point they will no longer be available.”
Fortunately, Plex provides instructions for users to download their podcast subscription list in OPML which can then be imported into other players. But you gotta be quick!
Removal of podcasts from Plex is odd at a time when the medium is exploding, and flies counter to the company’s goal of being a one-stop shop for all your streaming media consumption. But, as XDA Developers notes, Plex’s podcast support hasn’t evolved much since it was first introduced, and the Plex forums are rife with unaddressed complaints about buggy performance, same as we saw at launch.
