Chrome extension allows you to watch Netflix remotely with your friends

You can watch Netflix with your friends remotely using this a new Google Chrome extension called “Netflix Party.”

While most of the world is stuck inside due to the coronavirus, a Google Chrome extension has come into a more wide consciousness. This extension, titled Netflix Party, allows you to watch Netflix with other people who aren’t in the same location as you.

Twitter user Christine Woods (@stehdahlknows) pointed this out, and that’s how we found out about it.

The ability to have this kind of shared viewing experience with other people really should already be a more wide-reaching phenomenon. You can watch live sports and television with people across the country, so why not on-demand streaming?

Judging by the replies to the below tweet by Christine Woods, it seems like there are other places where you can do something similar. But it would be quite convenient if streaming services built this sort of functionality into their interface. Most of them have profile options as it is, which would be a great starting point.

Much like new releases coming straight to VOD, this could be seen as a start of something that could last well beyond our days of social distancing. Wanting to have a shared viewing experience isn’t a direct result of not being able to go over to a friend’s house. There are people whose family members live far away, are in long-distance relationships, or are otherwise unable to make it to a central location to watch a show or movie.

Netflix Party could always be of good use. It isn’t perfect only for the antisocial or the quarantined. Netflix Party has a chat function, but you could just as easily text or call your friends while the show is going.

Watching movies and television have been communal activities since their beginning. There is a reason movies were put in theaters and the whole family would gather around the TV nightly to watch whatever was on that night. These things bring us together, give us something to talk about, and help us relate.

Twitter can be toxic and awful, but part of why it’s popular is the community and group mindset that it can bring. It’s not the only place we can get this, but it’s a microcosm of this idea. This new evolution seems like the natural next step to streaming.

Hopefully, it can gain some steam and be implemented, allowing us all to watch our favorite media with our favorite people.