With the current COVID-19 crisis faced by people around the globe to follow social distancing and stay at home more, we’re all beginning to crave for a visit from our close friends and relatives. Birthday parties and vacation plans are canceled or postponed for the time being, and with a game night on break indefinitely, No one knows when it’ll actually be safe again to have a guest over or take a trip to a friend’s house.
How to Use Netflix Party To Stream Movies
Social distancing has made many people miss all of the group activities we’re used to doing, like watching movies with friends, but there is a way to do it online. Netflix Party, a Chrome extension, lets you watch videos with your friends and chat together at the same time. Here’s how it works: you and your friends log in to your separate Netflix accounts. Pick a movie or show to watch, and Netflix Party will sync the playback across your accounts, so you’re all watching the same thing at the same time from your individual accounts. Netflix Party includes a text chat function on the side of the screen, so you and your friends can react and chat in real-time.
Netflix Party synchronizes video playback of the movie or shows you’ve selected so that you and your friends can all watch in real-time and discuss what’s going on in the chatroom on the right side of the screen. At this time, the extension is only available for the Google Chrome browser on desktop and laptop computers.
To host a Netflix Party:
- Download the extension
- Open up Netflix, and start playing a video
- The Netflix Party extension icon next to your address bar should have changed from grey to red. Click on it.
- A window will pop up instructing you to “Create a Netflix Party.” You have the option to either give yourself total control over the playback or leave it open to everyone. Click “Start the party.”
- Another window will pop up with a link. Click “Copy URL” and share it with your friends. If you need to, you can find this link again by clicking the Netflix Party extension icon.
- Netflix Party will automatically give you an icon. By clicking on the icon, you can change it (there are a few alternatives) as well as your nickname.
To join an existing Netflix Party:
- Click on the link
- Click on the Netflix Party icon
Netflix Party isn’t the only way to host a virtual watch party. If you want to see and hear your friends via your webcams while watching Netflix, you can install Scener. If you’d rather watch a video on YouTube or Hulu, you can use Meta stream, which has a text chat feature like Netflix Party. Stay tuned here to get the latest updates and stay healthy, stay safe amidst the coronavirus scare.
