one. By 2020, Facebook had jettisoned the idea of doing originals and transitioned Facebook Watch into a feed for sticky video clickbait. The Facebook Watch Party feature was turned off in April this year, and replaced with ‘Watch Together,’ which operates over Facebook Messenger. The new feature allows people on different devices to comment on the short videos in the Facebook Watch feed, and videos and posts on Facebook’s Instagram platform. AN IDEA THAT WAS PERFECT FOR THE PANDEMIC But as the Facebook Watch Party fades away, its name has become common parlance in the online video world, and competitors have picked up the watch party baton to create opportunities for remotely sharing a viewing experience. Some platforms had already been kicking around the idea, but the pandemic made developing the watch party a no-brainer. Amazon Prime Video introduced its own watch party tools in June 2020. The Prime Watch Party is only available on the desktop browser version of Prime, and offers the ability to invite up to 100 other friends, who can access the video invitation via their own Prime membership, or through purchasing and renting the video. The ‘party’ takes place via a text chat feature.
I WAS AN AMERICAN LIVING IN THE UK, AND I REALLY MISSED THINGS LIKE WATCHING THE SUPER BOWLWITHMY DAD
Disney+ has also launched its own built-in watch party feature, called GroupWatch. Although Netflix hasn’t gone in exactly the same direction, it hasn’t needed to. In 2020, there was a surge in watch party-type services, all aimed at serving a world in lockdown – and Netflix was the one service viewers wanted to share. Netflix Party launched in the summer of 2020 as an irresistibly free browser extension, allowing viewers to watch a movie – and text chat about it – in sync. This May, Netflix Party rebranded as Teleparty and added a watch party facility for Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max. Other watch party providers include Scener, which also provides voice chat between users and allows sharing of most video services, including YouTube and Vimeo. Watch2Gether offers a shared audio/video chat room for full
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