Facebook has a feature you've probably never used before, and now, in these days of confinement when you miss being with friends, you might find it quite useful, as it will allow you to watch videos posted on the social network with other people in real time.
How to watch videos at the same time with other Facebook friends
With the group video function we can see any type of video published on the social network together with other contacts we have on Facebook, at the same time and share opinions through live chat. It's something like making a live broadcast with an audience chosen by yourself, but instead of broadcasting from your camera, what we would do is create a playlist with all the videos we want to show.
Create your own group video
To create a group video, all you have to do is access your Facebook news feed or bio to choose the feature.
- At the top of your biography, select the option “What are you thinking about” to start a new publication, and within it, choose the option “Group video” that you will see below.
- If you do it from your PC's web browser, then you must choose the option Group video that hides in the extra options that appear when you press the ellipsis.
- Once the option is chosen, it will be time to choose the videos that you want to be played in the broadcast. They can only be videos hosted within Facebook, and you can search among the videos you've seen recently (this is used to show someone something you saw and caught your attention), your own library of videos uploaded to your profile or searching by category on the whole network.
- Once you choose the videos and have set the privacy of the broadcast (Public, only for your friends, or only for specific people), you can start with the live broadcast. The message “Your group video is about to start” will appear on the screen.
- At that time the post will appear on your timeline, and those with permission will view it as just another post and will be able to log in to watch the videos. When they log in, they'll be part of the internal chat, where they can write comments, send reactions with emoticons, and even suggest other videos for the group video admin (the person who created the post) to decide whether or not to include it in the playlist.
Features available in group video
During the broadcast we can add live comments, add additional videos, invite friends to join the broadcast, suggest videos to the administrator and send reactions with emoticons and animated GIFs .
Things we won't be able to do in group videos
Something that you will ask yourself and that is quite obvious to think about, is if we can broadcast our own videos that we have on the computer. The answer is yes, but only if we have previously uploaded said file to Facebook. If we upload the recording to our profile, we can select it later in the group video to add it to the playlist.
On the other hand, we will not be able to include YouTube videos either, something that may have crossed your mind, but unfortunately it is not allowed. As we have already mentioned, the videos that can be played will only be those that are already hosted on the social network, so you should limit yourself to them.