With the current pandemic still ongoing, several services found it to be the right time to launch group watch features for their content. Hulu was one such company.
Earlier this year, when Hulu first launched Watch Party, there was a bit of a catch to actually use it. The company blocked the feature for all users, instead only offering it to those who were forking over money for the ad-free version of the service. But that restriction is finally gone, months later.
Today, Hulu confirmed that the Watch Party feature is now available to all customers. With the feature now live for all, it means that more people can take advantage of watching movies and TV series together — without actually being in the same room. The feature is still only available on the website. There’s no word on when –or even if– that will change in the future.
Today, we’re officially launching Hulu Watch Party for Hulu and Hulu (No Ads) subscribers on Hulu.com. Viewers can now safely connect with their friends and family from the comfort of their homes to watch thousands of titles from Hulu’s on-demand streaming library.
To launch a Watch Party, it’s pretty straightforward. On supported content, there will be a “Watch Party” button on the film’s or TV series’s details page. Once that is clicked, the user will get a link to share with up to seven other Hulu users so they can all watch the content together.
Each participant can control their own end when it comes to playback, and there’s a built-in chat function as well.
The Watch Party feature does still have some caveats. Each user must be a Hulu subscriber in any capacity to use the feature, and they must be 18 years old or older.