Watch videos simultaneously with friends while video chatting.
Airtime
If you’re missing the nights where you and a group of friends get together to watch your favorite YouTubers, you can have that back. An app called Airtime lets you video chat with friends while watching movies, shows and YouTube videos on the same screen. You can see each other’s reactions, and anyone can pause the video for everyone to talk about what just happened.
A variety of movies and TV shows are integrated into the app, as well as YouTube and SoundCloud. So you can watch music videos and YouTube personalities, and can even share photos with the group from your phone or tablet’s camera. You can stream trending songs and videos with your friends, too.
Here’s how to start video chatting while watching videos with your friends.
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Drop emojis and GIFs into the video chat.
Airtime
Setting up an Airtime room
After downloading the app for your iPhone or Android device, set up your profile and add all your friends you want to video chat with — they’ll need to have an Airtime account, too. Then you need to create an Airtime room: Tap Create Room on the main screen, then invite your friends to the room and tap Next.
Airtime recommends adding five friends or fewer to each room for a better experience. You can also choose whether you want the room to be Secret, so only your invited friends can see, or Party, where friends of friends can join in.
To change the name of the room, open the settings in the top right corner. You can also customize the room’s description and color theme, and delete the room history so that all messages and media will be removed.
Watching with friends
After you’ve created a room, you’ll need to send an alert to your friends about starting a video chat. To do so, open the room you created and select Signal Room. While you wait for your friends to join, you can select a video or movie to watch by tapping the Popcorn icon at the bottom of the screen.
While you’re watching the video with your friends, you can drop GIFs, emojis and sounds into the room — you’ll see icons at the bottom of the screen that say Reactions, Stickers and Sounds. You can also send messages with video chatting by tapping the Messages icon.
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What can I watch?
The number of full-length movies is a little limited compared with the rest of the YouTube universe, but there’s still a good selection, including Shrek, Benjamin Button, Failure to Launch, Heathers, Donnie Darko and Odd Thomas. There are also plenty of horror films and family-friendly movies.
You can also watch TV shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Degrassi, Forensic Files, Hell’s Kitchen and Storage Wars.
YouTube videos are up for grabs as well. Just type in what you’re looking for in the search bar, like a YouTube influencer’s name or a funny video compilation.
If you enjoy using Airtime for YouTube shows, you can learn how to watch Netflix at the same time as friends with Netflix Party. For more entertainment, here are 11 things to do in quarantine when you’ve already made three loaves of banana bread and here’s a new perspective on being bored.