How to Watch Movies Online with Friends: 10 Sure Ways

Sidomex Universal
8 min readMar 30, 2022

Watching movies has been made very easy since the inception of streaming platforms. In today’s world, there are many movie streaming platforms that you can use to watch movies online. This allows movie lovers like yourself to view some of your best films from the comfort of your home. And before now, watching movies with friends and family can be very difficult. This is often due to differences in location as you can’t always have your friends together in the same room.

Thankfully, those days are over as there are a series of streaming services that allows you to enjoy your favorite movies and content in sync, regardless of where you are. Most streaming platforms now enable group watch features to help you achieve this. The group watch feature became popular during the COVID-19 lockdown, where movement was restricted. A typical example of this feature is the Apple Inc. share play. This allows users of Apple products to watch movies together on the face time app.

In this article, I will share ten ways to watch movies with friends online regardless of location differences.

Related article: Best 7 cheap 5G smartphones under $500 to buy in 2022.

10 Ways to Watch Movies with Friends Online

Watching movies online is the latest trend today, and with several blockbuster movies up for consumption, using the right platform has never been so important. To this end, knowing your options and choosing what works best for you is essential. To help you out, here are the ten best streaming platforms to watch movies with friends online:

Watch the latest TV shows and movies here! (free for 7 days)

1. Hulu Watch Party

This streaming platform allows you to stream selected titles from its library with seven friends or family members. The movie chosen gets synched up among the other participants of the session, and all is set. Additionally, you and your friends can chat with its live group chat feature. You can verify that the movie you choose supports this feature by looking for the small watch party icon close to the play button.

Watch party at the moment is an online-only feature for most web browsers; this means you don’t need to install any extensions or apps. Using the Hulu watch party is easy, and you can invite friends to movie nights by sending them a unique link to join your session. A disadvantage, however, is that the entire group you are asking needs a Hulu account to participate.

2. Amazon Prime Watch Party

With the Amazon prime watch party, you can add as many as 99 of your friends to watch a movie. This is an Amazon browser-based feature that debuted a while back and comes with any of the prime video membership plans. And if you are yet to subscribe within the last 12 months, you get a free 30-days trial run.

All you have to do to get started is to visit your movie’s landing page, proceed to click on the watch party icon close to the blue “Watch Now” button. Next, create a custom link to share with your friends. Once all your friends are in session, everyone is free to start chatting and connecting in the group sidebar, but the host controls all playback tools like pause, skip, play, rewind, etc. With Amazon prime watch party, every participant will have to buy or rent it individually.

3. Watch2gether

This is another impressive option when you wish to watch movies with friends online. It has a simple and easy-to-use interface that requires no learning curve. You have to create a room by clicking on the “create a room” button. Input a temporary nickname you want, and you are redirected to the video and chat room. From here, you can share your invite links to friends and family to have an enjoyable viewing party. With Watch2gether, you can share and watch videos from YouTube, DailyMotion, or Vimeo.

4. Disney+ Group watch

Disney’s feature for viewing parties is the group watch, which allows you to watch any Disney movie with seven friends and family via the app. It is very similar to the Hulu watch party and the Amazon prime Video watch party. With Disney+ Groupwatch, you can invite your friends to a session using a unique link with everyone needing their log-in details.

Unlike some other platforms, the group watch allows participants to accept invitations through the Disney+ web and mobile apps. Also, you can switch to a connected television to watch the movie. This effectively means your favorite film on Disney+ is not confined to a browser window. But unlike other streaming tools online, this lacks a text chat or voice feature for commentary during the movie in group watch. Using the Disney+ mobile app, you and other users can share emojis reactions to viewers’ screens using the Disney+ mobile app. Also, every participant has access to the playback tools.

Please keep in mind that the Disney+ Groupwatch is unavailable on PlayStation devices and specific Roku models.

Click here for movies and TV shows at only $5.99/mo

5. Scener

Scener is a free third-party chrome extension that makes private; invite-only rooms where you can watch a movie with about nine friends. You can also simultaneously chat through voice, text, and sometimes video. It has a mode called “theatre mode,” which supports up to a million guests and as many as ten co-hosts. This makes it suitable for celebrities to connect with fans without leaving their home.

Before now, it was limited to just HBO Go, Netflix, and HBO Now. But now, it works on multiple streaming platforms like YouTube, Hotstar, Vimeo, Shudder, and HBO Max. To use Scener, all participants must install the extension while having an account with the streaming platform the host is using. If you want to invite friends computer, all you have to do is click on the “host a watch party” icon on the Scener homepage. Next, start sharing access to friends with an invite link or a code.

6. Telepathy

This is similar to Scener but much simpler. It uses a browser extension available for both chrome and opera browsers. Telepathy, also known as Netflix watch party, can sync high definition video playback and also add a feature for a text-only chat. It is compatible with HBO Max, HBO Now, Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu. With Telepathy, you can watch movies online with 50 persons depending on the server load.

Like in Scener, all participants must install the Telepathy extension and log in to their streaming account the host is using. This makes it impossible to join a session without both. Once everyone is set, you can choose a movie, then click on “play.” Then, click on the “TP” icon close to the address bar in your browser window. This will generate a link to the session, which you can share with others to click and join. Additionally, you can proceed to choose someone who will control the movie or instead still give all the participants control over playback functions like “pause” “play” buttons.

7. Twoseven

Two seven is another watch party extension available to chrome and Firefox. And it also works with both Crunchyroll and Apple TV+. The free version is quite robust; it supports two streaming services with others like YouTube, HBO Max, and Netflix. You can sign up for $5 a month option, which allows you to unlock the screen-sharing feature with up to 10 other users.

Setting up a session using Twoseven can be a little tricky, but it is something you can handle. You will have to create an account on its website and log in to your account. Next, click on the start watching icon, displaying a pop-up window to either disable or enable webcam usage and tweak playback control. Now you can either choose to add friends and family to a room or if this is your first time using the platform, proceed to create a solo room. From the solo room, you can invite other participants with a link.

As in other platforms listed above, every participant will need a log-in if you will be watching a movie from a particular streaming platform. But if it is a personal video you wish to watch with friends, you can either upload the webm or mp4 format directly to the room created or proceed to stream it. Alternatively, you can ask your friends to download the file and then use the Twoseven platform to sync the playback. With Twoseven, you can add about 400 individuals to a session.

8. Twitch

Twitch is much more than a gaming app now. If you have a twitch account, you can now stream movies available with your Amazon Prime Video subscription on the Twitch web client. Its new watch party tool is available under your creator dashboard’s “Stream Manager” section. If you are the host, all that is required is to input your Prime or Prime video info.

Then, you can set up your webcam audio and video for pictures, choose a movie you wish to watch, and click “start watch party.” Your family and friends can now join by opening a free Twitch account, then visit your channel and proceed to authorize their various devices. They can do this by using their prime video log-in, which means every member of your watch session requires a subscription.

The downside is that Twitch streams are not private, which means anyone with an account and a Prime video subscription can crash your watch party. However, it is unlikely if your channel is very small, but it is still possible. Read more.https://jdsquad.com/how-to-watch-movies-online-with-friends-10-sure-ways/

--

--

Sidomex Universal

Sidomex Universal is a leading 360-degree entertainment company focused on bringing great ideas and visions to reality throughout Africa. Join us.