WhatsApp may soon let you host your own Netflix-like watch parties

Meta has been furiously introducing new features to its instant messaging platform WhatsApp, in a bid to dominate traditional rivals such as Telegram, as well as mainstream meeting apps such as Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Well, the latest such feature happens to be video and audio sharing. Here’s why you may want to check this out.

What the new video and audio sharing feature on WhatsApp is and how it works

WABetaInfo recently spotted evidence of a video and audio sharing feature in WhatsApp Beta for Android version 2.23.26.18. The feature works together with the screen-sharing feature first released for WhatsApp back in August 2023. Now though, one can share not just their video, but also audio along with it.

If you’re wondering just why this feature may be handy, remember the Netflix parties we had during the pandemic-induced lockdowns in 2020, with our friends and families? The same is also useful for teachers trying to take their students through an audio-visual tutorial. With this feature, the platform gains a crucial advantage, with Apple’s FaceTime having had the same feature for a long time now, via SharePlay. However, whether users on all ends will be able to collectively control what content is being streamed, as well as pause and play, is not clear as of yet.

ALSO READ: Upcoming WhatsApp feature will soon allow you to create group events

It must be noted here though, that audio sharing will only work as long as the video has been enabled by a user. The moment the video feed is disabled, audio sharing stops as well. Therefore, the feature is not accessible on WhatsApp voice calls either. Moreover, the feature has currently been spotted on WhatsApp Beta for Android. If and when it will come to WhatsApp for iPhones and desktop remains to be seen as of now.

Other features to look out for on WhatsApp

In a year, perhaps no other platform has received new features aimed at providing for a better user experience at quite the same pace as WhatsApp. Just some of these include the ability to use WhatsApp with two accounts on the same device, use it with the same account on two different devices, the ability to edit your messages and media captions after they’ve been sent, the ability to create event, to filter your chats, automatic albums on Channels, self-destructing voice notes, and a lot more.