Feeling lonely during the period of social isolation or self-quarantine? A Chrome browser extension lets you binge-watch your favorite Netflix shows with friends and family while text chatting with them.
With social interaction at a minimum during the COVID-19 outbreak, people rightfully feel cooped up and lonely due to not being able to do anything with their friends.
A free Chrome browser extension called Netflix Party may help bring a little social interaction back into your life.
Netflix Party lets you watch shows together
Netflix Party allows friends and family to watch the same show together while providing a text chat room experience.
To use this browser extension, each user must be logged into Netflix and have the Netflix Party extension installed.
A user can then start a Netflix video, pause it, and click on the NP button in the Chrome Omnibar to create a group link that can be shared with others.
When creating this group, I suggest you make it so only the group creator can control the video playback so that other people do not pause the video whenever they want.
When another user with Netflix Party clicks on the shared link, they will automatically be brought to the selected video and a chat room will be shown on the right side of the screen.
This chat room lets you set your name, use one of a few available avatars, and chat with each other while you are watching the show or movie.
The group creator can then start the show and pause it as needed and the show will start and pause on the other party member's computers.
In BleepingComputer's tests, the process works very well, but there will be a slight delay between the person controlling the video and others who are part of the party. In our tests, this only caused about a one to two-second delay.
It should also be noted, that this extension does track your activity and what Netflix shows you watch but will tie this data to your anonymous Netflix Party ID.
If this does not bother you, then Netflix Party may be a great way to watch a show or movie with some friends to ease your social isolation.
Comments
Warthog-Fan - 4 years ago
Sounds like a great idea...!!! One of my buddies and I used to get together for lunch every week, but with the restrictions on travel and group gatherings, we can't do that anymore. So we decided to have "virtual lunches" instead where we will Skype and talk as usual while eating our respective meals. If you haven't thought of doing something like this with your friends, you might think about trying it. You could have a lot of fun.