Entertainment

Netflix Party lets you have movie night while social distancing

At this movie night, guests are on the screen too.

While many movie night buddies are temporarily separated by coronavirus quarantines and social distancing, this Netflix hack lets them all watch together, no matter how much physical distance is between them. Called Netflix Party, the free Google Chrome extension allows users to remotely watch Netflix together. The extension synchronizes the video playback and has a sidebar for group chats.

“PSA: If you want to still have movie night with friends without risking COVID-19 spread, Google Chrome has an extension called Netflix Party that allows you to simultaneously stream Netflix with friends,” writes Christine Woods, who works in immersive theater, in a now-viral tweet. “It has a chat window & play/pauses for everyone in the group so you stay synced.”

To set it up, add the Netflix Party extension from the Chrome web store, then open a video in Netflix. “Create your party” by clicking on the red “NP” icon adjacent to the toolbar and then click “Start Party” to share the party URL with friends you want to screen-share with. Friends need only click the party URL, and they’re in.

For visual learners, a TikTok video also offers a tutorial.

While Netflix Party is, per its name, only good for the one streaming service, gaming app Discord also boasts a similar feature, called Go Live, which is available on other platforms as well. It also allows for up to 50 people at a time to screen-share. The Post has reached out to Netflix Party for its screen-share person limit.

For some introverts, however, the apps are laudable in theory but overwhelming in practice.

That’s both awesome and yet still too social for me,” tweets one person who appears to be just fine social distancing without virtual company.