YouTube is a platform that allows you to connect with your friends, significant other, or even family members. The endless stream of content provides great entertainment or education, which often becomes more enjoyable with the company. However, especially in 2020, it’s hard to find a way to get together and watch a video the traditional way.
Luckily, there are many ways to connect even at a distance. In the past, a popular website called Rabb.it provided premium quality service for users to create virtual lounges in, and surf the internet together in real time. Tragically, the site shut down in 2019 due to complications and financial issues.
Don’t be afraid. This doesn’t mean the end of streaming videos with your friends.
In this article, we compiled the best ways to watch YouTube — and a lot of other online content — with your friends over the internet. These great Rabb.it alternatives allow you to queue videos from YouTube and a number of other platforms, sync them with your friends or even use an integrated virtual machine to hop online together.
1. Watch2Gether
Watch2Gether is a reputable website that has been around since the early days of the internet. It allows you to create a virtual room, invite your friends, then play YouTube videos in real time sync. What makes this website stand out is the ability to use voice and text chat integrated into the site itself.
Registration is available but not necessary — however, rooms created by registered users will stay available to access even after you end the session. Guest users can still create and join rooms, change display names, and use all features freely. Another bonus that Watch2Gether has over other solutions is the fact that it works on mobile phone browsers, as well as desktop browsers.
2. Tutturu
Often regarded as the upcoming successor of Rabb.it, Tutturu is a rapidly growing platform for remotely browsing together with other people. It enables the host to create permanent virtual rooms, then invite multiple people to remotely browse and watch the same content in real-time. It uses the same virtual machine technology as Rabbit did, making the cursor visible on screen with an interactive web browser in your browser.
Tutturu doesn’t require you to sign up for an account, but creating one allows you to customize your profile and even sign up for the premium service. Without premium, your room may be shut down under heavy site traffic, requiring you to manually restart it after a queue.
3. Metastream
A stylish alternative to video syncing. Metastream allows users to create online rooms where videos and websites are synced and automatically put in full screen for all users. Additionally, the built-in chat makes communication easier and faster when enjoying a YouTube video together.
Metastream provides a way for users to enjoy other content together as well. Albeit not as initiative as Rabb.it or Tutturu, if everyone has access to a Netflix or Hulu account, you can watch movies and other content at the same time using the Metastream platform.
Registration is not needed — just enter a nickname, and share your room link with your friends. Want to make things private? Set a user limit or simply set your room to private, then approve of join requests manually. No disruptions, no hassle.
4. Trast
Trast allows you to broadcast live to a private group of people. Using this technology, you can select a specific browser window with YouTube (or virtually any other video sharing website) open, and share it with your friends. While registration to Trast is not available, you do need a Discord account in order to use the service and send invites to your friends, who also require an account.
While it might not provide a completely lag-free experience, Trast allows users to be interactive with websites and consume content infinitely with friends.
5. Discord Screen Share
If you don’t want to over complicate it, simply go with Discord’s built-in screen share feature. Thanks to the new updates released in 2020, screen share now works in both private messages, group messages, as well as servers, making it easy for you to share a YouTube video playing in your browser, a game, or your entire screen.
Naturally, to be able to use Discord screen share, you need to create a Discord account. Don’t worry, it’s free. Afterwards, you can invite your friends into a group chat or a server and enjoy YouTube videos as a community.
6. Sync Video
Sync Video works similarly to some other applications on this list, but manages to bring its unique and useful features to the table. You can create a room and invite your friends to watch videos together, synced in real time. Additionally, any new videos queued will be placed into a playlist, automating the process of watching multiple videos in a row.
A great feature Sync Video managed to nail is the “pause on buffer” option. This makes it so whenever a member of the room is buffering, the video will pause and allow time for the members to catch up.
7. Bearcat
Bearcat is an early website in development that allows users to use virtual machines similar to Rabbit or Tutturu. After registering, you’re able to host rooms — both public and private, — then watch just about any content on the internet without major restrictions on how you can interact with the browser.
Final thoughts
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