Follow feature allows you to follow another user’s public activity on Plex without needing a mutual friendship. As long as a user’s profile is visible (not private), you can follow them and see their public posts (like ratings, reviews, and public watch history updates) in your Activity Feed. You will not see any content that has been set to private or friends-only.

Follow vs. Friends – What’s the Difference?

Following is a one-way relationship. You can follow any user on Plex whose profile visibility allows it, without waiting for them to approve. 

Friends is a relationship where two accounts agree to become friends. This is a deeper connection where your Friends can see more than just the public content. Based on your privacy settings, in addition to what followers can see, they can see content that you have marked as friends-only.

It’s important to note that Follower and Friending will coexist in the Plex community. The Follow feature is not replacing your Friends. Follow users for their public activity and be friends with people you want to form deeper relationships with. 

How to find and follow account profiles

Note: The Follow button is currently only available in the current Android and iOS mobile apps

The “My Account Visibility” privacy setting determines if an account can be followed and by whom. Note that even if someone has this enabled for Anyone they may have individual items on their profile like Reviews only shared with only friends or private for example.

If they have their Reviews public, click on their Avatar on the review to get to their profile – as long as they have their Account visibility set to appropriately there will be a Follow button. If you want to “unfollow” someone, then click on the “Following” button to change the state.

You can also find folks on the People Tab of Discover. You can search for accounts there that have their account visibility set appropriately or you can click on one of the suggestions. Clicking on the Following hub title or View All at the end of the hub will take you to your existing following list.

Content from Followed users will appear along with friends on hubs like Ratings & Reviews and in the Activity Feed.

Privacy Settings

Accounts that follow you are allowed to see content that you have decided to share publicly. Related settings can be found in Settings>Account>Manage Profile Privacy or Settings>Privacy>Manage Profile Privacy

• My Account Visibility: Who can or can’t see your profile information and follow you? Your account/profile visibility settings determine this. This setting is separate from activities such as reviews. So be aware that if you have public reviews or other activities, users may still see your username and avatar, but based upon your profile visibility settings other information will be hidden or shown.
• Allow Friend Requests From: Who can send you a friend request (Note: This setting currently only exists in the mobile apps)
• My Follow Lists: The number of followers you have, and the number of accounts you follow is visible on your profile, but you can control the visibility of your follower/following lists. For new accounts, these lists will be visible by default. (Note: This used to be called “Friends List” and for existing accounts it will remain at whatever you had it set to)

Related Page: Profile

FAQ

• What happens to my existing friends?
  • Don’t worry! Your existing Friends are still there! AND you are automatically following each other by default. 
• What happens if I unfriend someone?
  • If you unfriend someone, you will also stop following them. 
• Can I still send friend requests?
  • Of course! 
• Who can send me a Friend Request?
  • It’s based upon your settings. In your Privacy Settings you can set who can send you a friend request. 
• What will my followers see? What will they not see?
  • What will they see?
    • They will see your activities that are marked as visible to all Plex users. This typically includes public reviews, ratings you give, and watch history. 
  • What will they NOT see?
    • They will NOT see anything you’ve marked as Private, Friends of Friends or Friends-Only. 
    • If you have a review visible to “Friends of Friends”, a random Follower who doesn’t fall into that group won’t see it. 
    • Followers will never see content like your personal media library or server shares. That is private unless you explicitly share your server with them.