Only a few months ago we could get together with friends or family members to enjoy a movie either at home or at a theater. But then the world came across a serious problem and we all ended up in a city-wide lockdown situation. Because we have to observer social distancing, we cannot watch movies with friends at the multiplex anymore.
If your memories of fun with friends at the movies is fading fast, then you can use StreamParty. It is an extension for Firefox browser that allows you to watch the same video, TV show or movie as your friends are watching at the same. The videos are synced for all the friends so you can watch the same part of the video simultaneously and comment about it using an online chat tool.
There is no popcorn to be shared and but this is the next best thing to getting together in person. Using this extension is very easy. All the friends who want to watch a video in sync have to install this extension on their web browsers (Firefox or Chrome). After that one person starts the video, clicks on the extension button and shares the URL it generates. That URL will automatically take you to the same video and display a chat panel on the side.
If any member of the group goes back or forward in the video then all the members are automatically switched to that point in the timeline of that video. By default, all members have this ability but if you do not want to have chaotic situation then the creators of the party can reserve this right for themselves.
StreamParty supports Netflix and Disney+ at the moment. Perhaps more online streaming services will be added in the future. It is still in the beta mode and might contain some bugs. Nevertheless, StreamParty can pull you out of the boredom and let you have some fun with friends once again.
You can get the StreamParty extension for Firefox from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/streamparty-beta/.