Last year, Amazon debuted a new feature to its Prime Video service called “Watch Party,” allowing Prime subscribers to virtually get together to watch their favorite shows or movies. Up to 100 users can be added to a single party, and you can also chat with fellow members using the built-in chat feature. Currently, Watch Party is only available for desktop users and through a web browser. However, it looks like Amazon could finally bring the feature to mobile users.
In Amazon Prime Video app version 3.0.290.9347, we have discovered some new strings that hint Amazon is preparing to bring the Watch Party feature to Android and Fire TV.
An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_DETAILS_TITLE">Watch Party Details</string><string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_INVITE_FRIENDS_BODY">Send your party link to your friends and family to watch together. They can join from a web browser or Prime Video app on their phone.</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_INVITE_FRIENDS_LINK_TITLE">"Link: "</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_INVITE_FRIENDS_SHARE_BUTTON">Share</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_INVITE_FRIENDS_TITLE">Invite Friends</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_SHARE_BODY_TEXT_FORMAT">Enter the Watch Party code %1$s in the Prime Video Fire TV app settings or click the link below. %2$s</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_SHARE_CHOOSER_TEXT">Share with</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_SHARE_SUBJECT_TEXT">Join my Watch Party!</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_TAB_CHAT">Chat</string>
<string name="AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_WATCH_PARTY_TAB_SETTINGS">Settings</string>
The feature will likely work similarly to its desktop implementation. To throw a watch party, the user will need to navigate to the show/movie they want to watch and click on the Watch Party icon. This will generate a link that the host can then share with their friends and family, and they can join the party from a web browser or phone. According to one of the strings, users will also be able to join the party by entering the host's code.
We don’t know when Amazon plans to finally ship the feature into its Android and Fire TV apps. It’s also unclear if the feature will be made available to Android TV, iOS, and Safari browser. We'll keep an eye out and let you know when it goes live on Android or Fire TV.