You Can Now Search for and Install Plugins From Within Jetpack Manage

At the end of 2014, Jetpack 3.3 introduced a centralized dashboard that enables users to manage Jetpack powered sites. At the time, you could only do the following:

• Plugin management: Turn plugins on or off with one click — per site or in bulk.
• Initiate plugin updates: Update plugins for a single site or all sites in bulk.
• Automatic updates: Turn on auto-updates for any plugin on a per-site basis or in bulk.

Now you can browse and install plugins from the WordPress plugin directory on sites you own that use Jetpack with the Manage module activated. Visit https://wordpress.com/plugins/browse and choose the site you want to manage. Look for the Configure area on the sidebar and click the Add button to open the plugin browser.

When the plugin directory launched a redesign earlier this year, a common complaint from readers is that the ability to see new plugins added to the directory was removed. Unlike the plugin browser in WordPress, the browser on WordPress.com displays new plugins.

Both browsers display similar information in the detailed view with the exception that the WordPress.com browser doesn’t show a list of contributors. Enej Bajgorić, a member of the Jetpack development team, explains how to quickly install a plugin to a Jetpack site when browsing the WordPress plugin directory:

If you find yourself browsing the WordPress.org plugin repository and want to install the plugin on your Jetpack site, you can just replace the .org in the URL with .com and be taken to the new Plugin Browser where you can install the plugin with a single click. You will need to be logged into your WordPress.com account for this to work.

A plugin browser to search for and install plugins is another feature that makes Jetpack Manage a free, decent alternative to commercial services for managing multiple sites. If you manage multiple sites with Jetpack Manage, let us know what you think and what key features you’d like to see added.