How to watch YouTube together with your friends remotely using SharePlay

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use the FaceTime SharePlay feature on your iPhone or iPad to watch YouTube videos in perfect sync with your remote friends.

YouTube and Apple FaceTime SharePlay icons next to one another

Imagine you’re in a long-distance relationship or have friends on the other side of the globe. In these cases, you can socialize over FaceTime by watching YouTube videos together.

If one of you pauses the video or skips forward or back, the change reflects on everyone’s device. This ensures you all remain in sync and continue to watch the same video in unison.

Requirements

You and your friend should fulfill these conditions:

  • Set up FaceTime on your iPhones or iPads
  • Install the YouTube app on both devices
  • Have a reliable internet connection for a smooth experience

Before you begin, you should know that either you or your friend can start the SharePlay session. But for this tutorial, we will assume you’d be initiating it, and your friend will join.

Watch YouTube with distant friends using SharePlay

1) Open the FaceTime app on your iPhone or iPad and video call the friend with whom you want to watch YouTube together. SharePlay also works with group FaceTime calls.

2) Once the call connects, tap the Share button from your FaceTime screen and select YouTube.

Tap Share button on FaceTime screen and select YouTube

3) The YouTube app will open on your iPhone, and the FaceTime call will shrink into a small Picture in Picture window. Find the YouTube video you want to watch with your friend and play it.

Find the YouTube video you want to watch with your friend over SharePlay

4) If this is the first time you’re using YouTube with SharePlay, you may see a popup asking, “SharePlay YouTube content?” Tap SharePlay.

Start to SharePlay YouTube content

5) The FaceTime participant will receive an alert. They can tap the SharePlay notification or hit Open next to Join SharePlay, which will open the YouTube app on their device. Once they are in the YouTube app, they may see a popup asking, “Join SharePlay for video title with your name?”. Your friend should tap Join SharePlay to begin watching together.

Join SharePlay session for YouTube with your friend over FaceTime

When you are watching YouTube together

Once the SharePlay session is active, you both will be able to watch the same video while the tiny FaceTime video call will continue in a Picture in Picture window. This lets you watch the video as well as talk with your friend.

The idea is to try to mimic the experience of you and your friend being together, watching a video, and having a discussion.

During the SharePlay session, if one of you does the following, it will also affect the other person’s playback:

  • Pause or resume the YouTube video.
  • Skip forward or go back.
  • Increase or decrease the playback speed to 0.75x, 1.25x, 2x, or something else.

Things like volume, full-screen playback, changing the video quality, turning captions on or off, liking the video, and commenting on the YouTube video remain independent. In other words, these settings are not affected by SharePlay.

End YouTube SharePlay session

You can go back to the FaceTime app by tapping the Picture in Picture tile and then tap Share > End SharePlay. You can choose to end the SharePlay for everyone or just you.

End YouTube SharePlay session

Alternatively, you can also end the call, and it will ask you to leave or stop the SharePlay session.

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