Peter Cao
Back in May, Hulu began testing a Watch Party feature that lets you watch the same movie or TV show with others without being in the same room. It’s similar to the feature introduced by Plex, Movies Anywhere, and Sling. Now, the company is rolling this out to everyone. And unlike during the testing period, you’ll get the feature whether or not you’re on the ad-supported or ad-free tier.
Unfortunately, Hulu’s Watch Party is still limited to the browser. In most instances, this means that you’ll need to open Hulu on your laptop or computer and stream it via a technology such as Chromecast or AirPlay to play it on your TV.
On the bright side: unlike some watch-together tools, Hulu allows each user in the party to control playback of the video feed. Tapping pause won’t affect other’s feed, but if you do end up falling behind you can simply press “click to catch up” to sync up with the rest of the group.
You’ll be able to invite up to eight friends or family with built-in support for text chat, which puts it ahead of most companies offering this feature. It’s worth noting that Hulu says the watch party feature is available for “thousands of titles” in its library, indicating that not every single movie or TV show will work.
Watch-together tools have been a super important tool during a time where most of us are staying at home. Hopefully, Hulu adds support within apps in the future.
