For all the Amazon Prime Members in the U.S, the good news has finally arrived as you can now watch TV shows and movies with your friends by hosting a Watch Party on Prime Video.
Although the feature is slowly rolling out, with currently being available only for the users in the US, users can still add up to 100 viewers in one Watch Party group. The only restriction, for now, is that every person in the group should be a US-based Prime member. Once the Watch Party begins, people can choose any original/licensed show or movie from a wide range of options available (as Amazon Prime is now already known for having the largest collection among all the streaming platforms)
There is also one more catch that movies or TV shows that are currently available for rent or purchase, however, won’t be available for a watch party. So, you can choose any title from US streaming video on demand catalog including the platform’s originals Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Jack Ryan, The Big Sick, The Boys, Homecoming, and My Spy or licensed titles that are made available after you have subscribed to Amazon Prime Video.
Watch Party hosts will have full playback control and there will be a chat box for friends in the group to talk in between intervals or boring scenes.
Furthermore, as Twitch and Amazon’s other streaming services offer streams that are open for anyone to join, as long as they have a Prime account, Prime Video’s new Watch Party feature will remain private. The hosts will share the link of the Watch Party to the guests they want to invite and then people will click to join - pretty much similar to how Zoom works or Netflix’s popular Watch Party feature.
Despite being late in the race of virtual viewing parties, Prime Video Watch Party is still only available for desktop. Amazon has not also confirmed whether they would be working on a mobile version or not.
Read next: How To Advertise With Amazon In 2020 (infographic)
Although the feature is slowly rolling out, with currently being available only for the users in the US, users can still add up to 100 viewers in one Watch Party group. The only restriction, for now, is that every person in the group should be a US-based Prime member. Once the Watch Party begins, people can choose any original/licensed show or movie from a wide range of options available (as Amazon Prime is now already known for having the largest collection among all the streaming platforms)
There is also one more catch that movies or TV shows that are currently available for rent or purchase, however, won’t be available for a watch party. So, you can choose any title from US streaming video on demand catalog including the platform’s originals Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Jack Ryan, The Big Sick, The Boys, Homecoming, and My Spy or licensed titles that are made available after you have subscribed to Amazon Prime Video.
Watch Party hosts will have full playback control and there will be a chat box for friends in the group to talk in between intervals or boring scenes.
Furthermore, as Twitch and Amazon’s other streaming services offer streams that are open for anyone to join, as long as they have a Prime account, Prime Video’s new Watch Party feature will remain private. The hosts will share the link of the Watch Party to the guests they want to invite and then people will click to join - pretty much similar to how Zoom works or Netflix’s popular Watch Party feature.
Despite being late in the race of virtual viewing parties, Prime Video Watch Party is still only available for desktop. Amazon has not also confirmed whether they would be working on a mobile version or not.
Read next: How To Advertise With Amazon In 2020 (infographic)
