Facebook introduces a co-viewing experience in Messenger, Watch Together

At launch, the co-watching experience can be used by up to eight people in a Messenger video chat on mobile, or by up to 50 people in Messenger Rooms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged a number of streaming services including Hulu, Plex and Amazon Video to adopt similar co-viewing features, or at the very least, unofficially permit third-party apps that enable co-watching, like Netflix Party.

It actually announced at its F8 developer conference two years ago its plans to develop a co-viewing experience for Messenger.

It also then developed a system that allows for tight synchronization between the various users streams of the same video. That, too, can be difficult, as someone in a rural area may have slower bandwidth speeds than someone in an urban metro, but the service has to make sure theyre seeing the same part of the video at the same time.

To use the feature, users have to first be in a Messenger video call or a Messenger Room it cant be kicked off from the Facebook Watch tab or anywhere else. From Messenger, theyre able to start a co-watching session by selecting the new option from a drawer that pulls up from the bottom of the screen.

The feature will begin rolling out globally across iOS and Android, but Facebook intends to have web support ready in a matter of weeks, and other platforms, like desktop, will follow.

Original article