Facebook has officially rolled out its Watch Party feature. Facebook’s Watch Party allows users to watch videos together. And the video streams will be synced so users can comment and react in real-time.
The host of the Watch Party queues up the videos and controls the playback. And multiple users can host the party, which gives them the ability to queue up videos as well. The attendees can suggest videos, but they cannot play them.
Watch Parties are created within Facebook Groups, but not Pages yet. And the videos that are queued up have to be hosted on Facebook.
“The Watch Party viewing experience is special because of the people you are watching with. We’re starting with Groups because one billion people use Facebook Groups every month to connect around their passions and hobbies – from foodies, to dog lovers, to sports enthusiasts, to fans of video creators – and video is a huge part of this interaction,” said Facebook’s Fidji Simo in a Facebook post about the feature back when it started being tested in January.
In order to start a Watch Party, moderators can select one or more videos and post it within the Group. And when a Watch Party is happening, the group members will see a Watch Party widget on the group page. And the members will be able to see a queue of the videos that are going to be played next.
Years ago, Microsoft had also introduced a similar feature on the Xbox 360 called “party mode,” which allowed users to watch Netflix together. However, the party mode on the Xbox 360 was shut down in 2011.
