“Every day, there are more than 150 million video calls on Messenger, and more than 200 million videos sent via Messenger. Now, with Watch Together, you can enjoy videos and share the experience with your friends in real time,” Nora Micheva, Product Manager for Facebook said in an announcement blog post. “We created Watch Together to make spending quality time with friends and loved ones feel as close to an in-person experience as possible. Whether it’s watching a trending video, a movie, a sports highlight, a makeup tutorial or a Facebook Watch original, the feature allows you to watch your friends’ reactions at the same time.” According to Facebook, Watch Together is also great for creators. To promote this launch, the social media giant has partnered with celebrity fitness trainer and author Melissa Alcantara to create a series of fitness videos to enable people to virtually work out with their friends and motivate each other to achieve their fitness goals. Citing a study conducted in the U.S., Facebook noted that 70% of people who worked out with a partner achieved their fitness goals as compared to 45% of people who worked out alone. To start using Watch Together, just start a Messenger video call or create a Messenger Room and then swipe up to access the menu and select Watch Together. From there users can select a video suggested for them or choose from a category such as ‘TV & Movies,’ ‘Watched’ ‘or ‘Uploaded.’ Users can also use the search bar to find what they are planning to watch. Users can watch videos with up to eight people on a Messenger video call and up to 50 people in Rooms. Watch Together feature is free and will be rolling out globally this week in Messenger and Messenger Rooms on mobile for iOS and Android.
