Some videos are better with company: a premiere, a new episode, a long tutorial you want to talk through. Until now, watching together meant someone counting "3, 2, 1, play" on a call. Today we're launching Watch together: watch parties for your ReedTV videos, where everyone sees the same moment at the same time, wherever they are.
How it works
- You turn on Watch together in Settings, under Watch page.
- Your watch pages now show a Watch together card. Anyone watching can click Start a watch party, copy the invite link and send it to friends.
- Friends open the link and tap Join watch party.
From then on, anyone in the party can play, pause, skip or change the speed, and it happens for everyone at once. A short notice such as "Someone paused" tells the others what happened, and a badge in the corner shows how many people are watching. It works on phones, tablets and computers, in any mix.
Built to stay in sync
Every player keeps checking its position against the party and quietly corrects itself, usually without anyone noticing. In our tests, players on a laptop and a phone stayed within a tenth of a second of each other.
If someone's connection slows down, the party waits a few seconds for them, with a "Waiting for someone to catch up…" notice, so nobody misses the moment. If their video still can't keep up, the others carry on and that person catches up as soon as their connection allows.
Your access rules still apply
A watch party never gives anyone access they wouldn't otherwise have. Everyone in the party opens the video themselves, so every rule you've set applies to each person:
- Patrons-only videos stay for your patrons. Each person signs in with Patreon on their own, and anyone who isn't a patron sees the usual invitation to join.
- If you turn off a video's watch page, nobody new can open it, so nobody new can join.
- If you turn off Watch together, new parties can't start, and parties that are already running end. Everyone carries on watching on their own.
Private by design
There's no chat and no names: the others in a party only see that someone pressed play or paused, and how many people are watching. Most people watching together are already on a call or messaging each other anyway. A party is open to anyone who has its link, so share it the way you'd share a private message.
Good to know
- Off by default. Nothing changes on your watch pages until you turn it on.
- Up to 10 people can join one watch party.
- It works with videos stored on ReedTV. Videos on your own Cloudflare Stream account (BYOA) don't support watch parties.
- Watch parties happen on your video's ReedTV watch page, not inside embeds on other sites.
- It's included in every plan at no extra cost. Each person in a party counts as a normal view in your analytics.
Turn it on in seconds
- Open Settings.
- Under Watch page, turn on Watch together. It saves straight away.
- Tell your audience: share a watch link and invite them to start a party with friends.
There's a step-by-step walkthrough in our Guides.