As long as social distancing remains a serious obstacle to friend and family get-togethers, movie watch parties will remain a bit more difficult to plan and execute. Movies Anywhere, however, has an answer for those looking to experience cinema with friends while in the comfort of their own home with a new "Watch Together" feature.
Usable on multiple devices, with up to nine guests for each showing, the app syncs up the film for everyone in attendance, and provides them with a chat room for real-time discussion of the film. This feature allows large groups of friends to all watch the same film without fiddling with annoying synchronization issues, or using a secondary application to communicate during the film.
The Movies Anywhere app itself is free, but anyone who wants to host an evening's entertainment for friends will have to either purchase the title or a limited-time "Screen Pass" that allows them to share. While the experience itself isn't quite free, it is more economical than other options, with fewer limitations on where and when the movies can be streamed. It is also fairly simple to use, only requiring the user to select the film, choose "I want to host," and send the six digit code and URL to whoever they wish to invite.
Other services have similar features, though not quite as refined. Hulu, for instance, can only start web parties if all users are no-ads subscribers, and requires them all to be using the web based version of Hulu. Twitch, similarly, requires all users to be subscribed to Amazon Prime in order to partake in a viewing party. Netflix has no viewing party features at all, with the only similar functionality coming from a third-party chrome app called "Netflix Party," which Netflix itself has no involvement with and doesn't always work seamlessly.
Hopefully Movies Anywhere will find success with this new feature implementation, encouraging other services to step up their game in this regard. It would do a lot of good for a people who can no longer easily justify extended social gatherings.
The "Watch Together" feature is available on any device with the Movies Anywhere app, and is available now.
Source: Engadget