Every day, more of our interactions with others happen over the Internet. You can play video games with a friend across the country, watch your nephew's soccer game at home, and do a video call with a group of people all around the globe. Amazon's latest feature for Prime Video is called "Watch Party" and it allows people to watch TV shows and movies together over the internet.
Amazon Prime Video "Watch Party" is a co-watching feature initially coming to subscribers in the U.S. It's included with a Prime membership and it allows people to watch content remotely with others, perfectly synchronized. One person is the "host" and they can start, stop, and pause video playback for everyone. It's like watching a movie in the same room and one person has control of the remote.
Each Watch Party session can include up to 100 participants who must also have Amazon Prime memberships. The session also includes a built-in chat for text and emoji conversations. Watch Party currently only works on the desktop and it supports thousands of the TV shows and movies available through Prime Video. Content that can be purchased or rented is not included, however.
To start a session, simply navigate to the TV show or movie you want to watch and click the Watch Party icon. The host will then be given a link that they can share with friends and family. Clicking the link will join the session and the content will then be synced with the host.
We've seen similar features and third-party extensions for other streaming services, so it's great to see Prime Video joining in. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic kept many people at home, watching movies and TV shows with friends over the Internet is something that many people enjoyed doing. Now it's even easier for Prime members to do.
Sources: Amazon (1), (2) | Via: TechCrunch