The YouTube app on Meta Quest headsets now supports VR watch parties. That means you can finally watch videos together with friends in a shared virtual environment.
Currently, the co-watching feature is in beta and supports only 2D content. While users can watch premium or paid content together, each participant must individually purchase or subscribe to access it with friends. Initiating a watch party involves selecting the co-watch icon within the YouTube VR app and inviting other users from a follower list. The system relies on mutual follower status, so users can only invite and be invited by those they mutually follow. Invitees will get a notification that they can join the party from there.
This feature supports both fully immersive VR viewing within Meta Horizon Home and a mixed reality (MR) mode, which overlays the virtual experience onto the user’s real-world surroundings. Up to eight people can participate in a single watch party. Participants appear as avatars regardless of the viewing mode chosen. Viewers can stand and watch or, as shown in the video below, do strange hand movements in front of the screen.
The new co-watching functionality is available in all regions where Meta Quest headsets and YouTube VR are supported. Users can log into their YouTube accounts within the VR app to access their subscriptions, playlists, watch history, and other personalized features.
The co-watching feature’s beta status suggests that there may be more added in future updates. It’s easy to imagine that the current restriction to 2D content will eventually be removed, and that there will be more done with the user interface. The area where you can watch videos is pretty bare. The VR world just has a regular startup area with multiple users, and there’s not even a chair for users to pretend to sit in. This is unlike other co-watching apps like BigScreen and VRChat, which give users more options for the environment.
The main alternative here is VRChat, which has many worlds with an integrated video player (usually placed on walls or TVs) that can play YouTube videos. VRChat is available on more platforms, including PC VR and Windows PCs without VR, but the integration is not official and doesn’t work for paid content. The Plex VR apps also had virtual watch parties for friends, but that app was discontinued earlier this year. BigScreen is another alternative, but it also has some bugs.
Source: Meta
