The hard part
Staying together is easy.
Staying together through everything else is not.
Anything can keep two videos at the same number. What breaks a watch party is adverts, weak connections, and the moment somebody changes what you are watching.
Ad breaks do not scatter everyone
Adverts are personal, so you sit out your own and land back exactly where the room is. When a break catches everybody at once, the film is held rather than running on without you.
It waits for slow connections
Switch it on and nobody is left buffering while the rest carry on. It gives up after a minute, so one bad connection cannot hold the room hostage.
You can see what everyone is doing
Watching, buffering, or in an ad break, per person. When something looks wrong you can see why instead of guessing.
Switch what you are watching
Next episode, different series, or a different service entirely. The room comes with you on the same code, and latecomers land on whatever you are watching now.
Talk over it without pausing
Pin a Zoom or Meet link to the room so latecomers get a button for it, and duck the film while you talk instead of stopping it for everyone.
Different copies still line up
If your version runs a different length, say so once and you stay in step from then on, instead of the two of you dragging each other back and forth.
Getting started
Three steps, no account.
1. Open something
Anywhere with a video player. YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, or a site nobody has heard of.
2. Create a room
Send the code, or the link, to whoever is joining.
3. Press play
Play, pause and skip as normal. Everyone follows, wherever they are.
Privacy
It knows where the playhead is.
That is genuinely all.
- No account, ever. There is nothing to sign up for.
- Nothing you watch is recorded. Only the position of the playhead crosses the network, so the room can stay together.
- One tab, not all of them. The address of the page you attached a party to is shared with that room while it runs. Every other tab you have open is never reported anywhere.
- Chat is relayed, not stored. It exists while the room does, then it is gone.
- No microphone. The extension does not ask for one.