These days, watch parties are all the craze. First, people flocked to the unofficial Netflix’s Watch Party to stream stuff together, but virtually. Then the likes of Amazon Prime and Twitch wove the same idea into their platforms. Now, we have Facebook Watch Together.
On Tuesday, the tech giant launched its watch party feature for the Messenger app that allows users to watch videos together. It’s a mobile-only feature, at the moment.
What separates it from other watch party offerings is it allows users to video call with up to eight people while watching, and up to 50 if you’re in a Messenger chatroom together. It’s also only available on mobile devices at the present time.
Facebook Product Manager Nora Micheva announced the feature in a company blogpost, spruiking the feature’s usefulness in our social distanced world.
“We created Watch Together to make spending quality time with friends and loved ones feel as close to an in-person experience as possible. Whether it’s watching a trending video, a movie, a sports highlight, a makeup tutorial or a Facebook Watch original, the feature allows you to watch your friends’ reactions at the same time,” she wrote.
“While nothing can replace being in the same rom with the people you love, Facebook Watch Together comes pretty close. We can’t wait for you to try it!”
How Facebook Watch Together works in Australia
Facebook Watch Together feature is limited to videos in Facebook’s Watch section. Launched in globally in 2018, the tab offers Facebook users a range of completely free videos to watch.
Anyone with a Facebook Page can upload videos to Facebook Watch. Some Facebook Watch content is produced in partnership with Facebook. This includes news content produced by Australia’s commercial networks and even some original shows shows that wouldn’t look out of place on another streaming service. These shows range from the Jessica Biel drama Limetown to the 33rd season of the Real World if that’s your thing.
Unfortunately, Facebook Watch’s search function is awful and, at time of publication, there’s no easy way to find the highly-produced shows made in partnership with Facebook. But thankfully Wikipedia has a handy list of Facebook Watch original programming that you can use to find the good stuff.
Facebook Watch Together is rolling out this week globally for both iOS and Android.