The need to socialize is a primal part of human nature, so while the world practices social distancing in response to the coronavirus, it is important to fill that void. Some have been using Animal Crossing to connect despite the circumstances and Niantic recently outlined some changes it’s making to let fans play Pokemon Go from home. But if you’re looking for a way to be a bit more social while zoning out in front of a screen, there’s a Google Chrome extension that allows you to do just that. Gather up the group chat and watch Netflix together without even having to be in the same room–it’s called Netflix Party and it might just be exactly what you need right now.
Netflix Party is a simple-to-use extension that lets you watch TV and movies from Netflix with your friends, at the same time. You can catch up on what’s happening in your lives in the handy chatroom that it adds in the sidebar or riff on a movie together à la Mystery Science Theater 3000. Even if you don’t use the text chat and opt for a video or voice call using an app of your choosing, what makes Netflix Party particularly useful is the way it syncs up what you’re watching for everyone with a link. If you’ve ever tried to coordinate a virtual watchparty, sometimes counting down and pressing play at the same time just doesn’t cut it.
How To Set Up Netflix Party
In this guide, we’ll walk you through exactly how to setup Netflix Party so you can start watching stuff with friends. In order to test out it out ourselves, we needed to pick out a movie to watch, and what better movie than Horse Girl, which has a very bizarre trailer. Considering “horsie movies” is already a weird inside joke with the entertainment team, why not watch this movie together? If you want something better to try it out with, check out our list of what’s new to Netflix in April.
Step 1 – Install Netflix Party
Head to the official Netflix Party website to find a link to the Chrome extension. Yes, you’ll need to be using Google Chrome to access this extension. Install it by hitting “Add to Chrome” in the Chrome Web Store.
Step 2 – Select Movie/TV Show
After Netflix Party is installed, head to Netflix and select the movie or TV show you want to play, then click the “NP” button in your browser, to the right of the address bar. From there, you can start the party and generate a specific Netflix Party URL to copy and paste to friends. You can also select whether you have exclusive access to playing, pausing, and tweaking options in the movie, or if other viewers can too. Remember, Netflix Party syncs up the movie for everyone, so if you pause the movie and you’re hosting the party, it will pause for all your friends too.
Step 3 – Enjoy!
As you can see, a chat box pops up on the right side. You can customize your chatroom name and pick from a few avatars. It is very basic, but it brings back the very nostalgic feeling of hanging out in an AOL chatroom–why didn’t any of us write “A/S/L?”
A few things to note: the person controlling the party is streaming their Netflix account to the others in the group, so there is a tiny bit of a delay, but that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things since it’s a chatroom. The only other issue with Netflix Party was finding out how to exit. There’s no button in the chat section to do this. Very quickly, we learned you just exit the movie, and that’s all you need to do. The most obvious answer is the correct one.
Netflix Party is available now, so you can add it to Chrome and all watch horsie movies together.
Netflix News
- New On Netflix This Week: Anime, Movie, TV Shows, And Originals (April 6-13)
- New On Netflix In April 2020: The Big Show Show, The Matrix, New Movies, TV Shows, And Originals
- Netflix Party Lets You Watch With Friends Online, Like An AOL Chatroom With Movies
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
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