Netflix Party lets you chill with friends — even when you’re miles apart

Josh Barrie Read more March 28, 2016

Have you heard of Netflix Party? No, it’s nothing to do with “chill”. Well, not really.

Netflix Party lets you chill with friends — even when you're miles apart

Netflix Party is a new extension on Google Chrome that helps you “interactively” watch movies and television shows with your friends, even if they’re miles away. It’s a downloadable plugin and allows users to create a link to share with others they want to engage with while catching up on shows.

The idea centres around the social side of catching up on your favourite box sets and film, sharing the excitement of Narcos and House of Cards with others, even if they’re not sitting on the sofa next to you.

The extension also lets viewers sync their shows alongside a “chat room”. You might be in London, they might be visiting their parents in Devon, but catch up on your scheduled 9pm movie you can, gossip and tears and all.

We’re not entirely sure how this will impact the “Netflix and Chill” situation. Obviously, watching movies with other people actually in the same room is better. It remains to be seen whether people bother to use it – it seems a little trivial and unnecessary, really. We can already use services such as WhatsApp and Slack to chat. But it might provide a novel pursuit for some.

Netflix Party was first talked about late last year. It’s just been made available and is beginning to get some hype. We should also note that the extension wasn’t created by Netflix, although the company does endorse it.