Soon, you and your Facebook friends could 'watch videos together'
What's the story
Facebook appears to be building a new feature for Messenger, one that could let you and your friends 'Watch Videos Together' while chatting. The capability sounds similar to the 'Watch Party' feature that went live for Facebook Groups earlier this year. It could drastically improve the Messenger experience, but there's no word on the official release, at least as of now. Here's more.
Feature details
'Watch Videos Together': How this would work?
The feature to 'Watch Videos Together' was discovered by mobile developer Ananay Arora, TechCrunch reported. Arora basically spotted code snippets suggesting Facebook Messenger will let users watch videos in sync with their friends - at the same time. Every person in the chat, according to the code, would be able to control the video, see who else is watching, and chat about it.
Twitter Post
Here's is the code unearthed by Arora
.@Facebook is testing watch party for @messenger! pic.twitter.com/30Hpuo9Ccp
— Ananay Arora (@ananay_arora) November 14, 2018
Support
However, questions remain over video support
Co-viewing sounds like an interesting feature for on-chat entertainment, but as of now, there's hardly any information about the feature. Firstly, it is unclear what the kind of videos this feature would support. In all likelihood, Facebook-hosted videos would work, but the question is about those hosted on YouTube and Netflix. Also, it remains unclear how the co-viewing option would be triggered.
Release
Also, there's no release guarantee
Though most features seen in Messenger's code have officially been released, there's no saying if this will ever go live. In a statement to TechCrunch, Facebook called this an 'internal test', leaving the possibilities of launch open at the moment. But, releasing this feature would make a lot of sense for Facebook, especially because it has already got a similar function for Groups.
Information
How Watch Party works on Facebook groups?
The Watch Party feature also allows people on Facebook Groups to watch videos together and react and comment on them at the same time.