By: Keaton Marcus

Around eleven days into quarantine, the streaming giant Netflix released something called Netflix Party, which is now available as a Google Chrome extension for free. This extension allows subscribers to head on over to the website on a computer and chat with your friends in total sync. This means that when one person pauses, all screens pause, or if one subscriber fast forwards, all fast forward automatically. It’s not audio or face-time, but something like messages. The chat pops up on the right hand side of the screen and allows friends or family to go back and forth with text messages while streaming. In this article, I will be listing some of the pros and cons of this extension.

There are some great things about Netflix Party. During a time like this, it’s important to contact and speak with your friends, and what better way to do that while watching your favorite film or show. Party does that successfully, making it much more convenient for friends to chat while watching. There’s also a flaw with that as well, since most people would encourage friends or family to have a facetime call with each other, fully focused on the person. However, if you just want to chat while watching a movie when you are unable to do a sleepover, this is the extension to go to. Other streaming platforms such as Amazon and iTunes have been releasing theatrical films early for rent or buy since nobody can go the theater, which is also helping film geeks cope. Obviously, Netflix isn’t the type of platform that does those things, and this is their own little gimmick to lessen the chaos of not seeing your friends or family for a good while.

If Coronavirus really doesn’t go soon, people will be looking for a hand to hold with no friends or family to meet up with; so is Netflix Party really the future of streaming if this virus stays long term? For some folks; but surely not everyone will still be hooked. I don’t know Netflix’s exact intention of releasing this, whether it was just a cute little thing to lessen the feeling of not seeing friends/family, or they really wanted to invent something. Yes, despite Netflix Party being fun and all, the future will likely be a grand innovation on this, something much more revolutionary than simply chatting with people while streaming. I watched the film Hanna on Netflix with one of my friends a couple days ago using Netflix Party, and it was pretty darn cool that we could chat the whole way through, though will anyone step up and attempt to improve it during a post-Coronavirus world?

Another pro, however, is that you are not limited in selection of film or TV, you are able to watch anything on Netflix using the extension. A movie or show doesn’t have to have special formatting or anything, but the streaming service’s boundaries are the limit. That’s expected though, you’re able to stream anything on Netflix, but not going into other platforms. What also could be possible is that the chats could become annoying, and making the viewer’s ability to focus more and more difficult. This usually won’t happen, but it could become a problem for subscribers. Personally, I thought it was fun and interesting to chat while watching, but in some cases that may not be true.

There weren’t any big, noticeable flaws during my experience, but me and my friend did have issues sending the party link to each-other. Netflix must find an easier way to do this, and although it’s nothing too difficult, there’s no reason people should have to spend more than 20 seconds setting this kind of thing up. Though, overall, I had a fun two hours, and it was really cool. Also, subscribers are able to pick a solid variety of icons for messaging, including some iconic superheroes, as well as customizing their nickname on the chat. So why can’t you just pull out WhatsApp or messages and chat on there? Because Netflix Party is much more convenient and allows up to 50 people to screen share. It’s nothing flawless, but nonetheless, it’s a nifty experience that is pitch perfect during the times of the Coronavirus to connect with your friends or family while streaming on Netflix.

Just overall,

What’s Good:

You get to chat with friends while streaming.

To make it better than the average WhatsApp chat, you are COMPLETELY in sync with your friends. It’s almost like you’re watching a movie or show TOGETHER.

It’s good fun during a time like this when you can’t simply meet up with friends or even have a sleepover together. It’s always healthy to connect.

It’s completely free, and you have a wide selection of both movies and TV to choose from. You just have to be a subscriber of course.

You get too choose from a variety of icons and you can customize your nickname on the chat as well while watching.

A massive 50 people at one time can screen share with Netflix Party, this is extremely convenient for a birthday party perhaps, or a gathering of people that just want to stream. But one question I have about this is if you are able to invite people in other countries.

What could be improved:

It’s not a revolutionary invention and what could be awesome is integrating the extension into virtual reality. This could be a fun trick for some people to use during a time like this, but what will become of it during a post-Coronavirus world.

Netflix Party does let you chat, which is nice, but perhaps some viewers prefer to see their friend’s reactions and that would be easier with a facetime call or even an audio call.

Netflix has to find an easier way to invite people, it’s fine, but for people who didn’t look at instructions, it’s just awfully taxing to invite other people. Though overall, we figured it out eventually.

Step 1: Find a Show or Movie You are Interested In

Step 2: If you have the extension and you’ve picked a movie or show, you should see the gray “NP” in your browser turn red. Click that and you should see options such as “only I have control”, which makes you the admin. If you don’t want that, keep … — Step 2: If you have the extension and you’ve picked a movie or show, you should see the gray “NP” in your browser turn red. Click that and you should see options such as “only I have control”, which makes you the admin. If you don’t want that, keep it as it is, and press “start the party”.

Step 3: After pressing “start the party”, you will see a sharable link pop up. You can copy the link and share it with anybody.

After sharing with up to 50 people, you can now chat with them while streaming the chosen show or movie. Completely in sync.