Invite a friend to a watch party
Open the video, click Watch Along, and click Start a watch party. The panel shows a QR code, a short vdr.fyi link, and a Copy link button. Send your friend that link and they land on a join screen, signed in or not, and press play with you.
A watch party is a link. You start one on the video you are already watching, copy the link out of the Watch Along panel, and send it. Whoever opens it joins your party and follows your play, pause and seek from that moment on.
Start the party and take the link
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Open the video you want to watch together.
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Click Watch Along in the row of controls above the player. The panel opens as a column beside the video. The first time, a short Watch together note explains it; click Got it.
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Click Start a watch party. The quiet Who can join row under the button reads Invite only unless you change it, and for inviting a friend that is the one you want: the link is the door. Everyone works too, and puts the party in front of people already on the video. The panel header becomes Watch Along with a live count, and the room below reads You're hosting and Nobody else is here yet.
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Right there in the People room, while you are still on your own, sit a QR code, the party's link in the form vdr.fyi/xxxxxxxx, and a Copy link button. For the first second or two the row reads Getting your link instead, while the link is being made; wait for it rather than clicking through, since there is nothing to copy yet. Then click Copy link.
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Send the link however you normally would.
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When your friend opens it and joins, the panel switches from Nobody else is here yet to a Watching now list, and the count in the header goes up.
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Open the video you want to watch together.
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Under the player is a row of counted pills: Receipts, Queue, Comments, and Watch Along. Tap Watch Along. The panel opens in the page rather than as a column beside the video. Held upright it is a small deck of its own: People and You, joined by Chat and Voice once a party has them, one card to a screen. Swipe across, or tap a name in the slim row under the header. Turned sideways it is one column you read top to bottom.
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Tap Start a watch party. The quiet Who can join row under the button reads Invite only unless you change it, which is all a friend with the link needs; Everyone works too and puts the party in front of people already on the video. The card's heading becomes Watch Along with the number of people watching now, and reads You're hosting underneath.
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Scroll to the share block. Copy link puts the vdr.fyi link on your clipboard, Share hands it to your phone's own share sheet, and Show QR code opens a code for someone sitting next to you.
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Send the link, or hold the code up to their camera.
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When they join, the count on the card rises and their name appears in the list of people watching with you.
What your friend sees
Opening the link takes them to a poster page, not straight into the video. It reads WATCH PARTY, then Watching together, then your masked name and started a watch party, then how many people are here now.
Under that:
- Signed in already: one Join button. It reads Rejoin the party instead if they have been in this party before.
- Not signed in: two buttons, Sign in and join and Join without signing in. The second one is there because a party accepts anonymous riders by default, so a friend without an account is never a dead end in an Everyone or Invite only party. A Followers, Friends or A group party checks who is arriving, which needs them signed in and inside the circle.
Either way they land on the video with the panel open, showing Watching with your name.
The QR code
A small code already sits in the People room the moment you are hosting. For a bigger one, Show QR code opens a dialog titled Scan to join, with the line "Point a phone camera at the code to open this party, or use the link below." and the full link underneath as selectable text. On desktop that button lives in the party's settings, behind the gear; on a phone it is in the share block. It is the same link the Copy link button gives you, so use whichever suits the room you are in.
Things worth knowing before you send it
- Who can join decides what the link is worth. With Everyone, people already on the video can find the party without a link at all; with Invite only, the link is the only way in; with Followers, Friends or A group, the door checks each arrival, so a friend outside the circle is turned away even with the link. See Host a private watch party for the full picture.
- You appear under a mask by default. Your friend sees a two-word name like Cosmic Newt, not your account. Change that with the Your visibility control, at the foot of the panel on a computer or a phone held sideways, and on the You card when the phone is upright.
- Ending it is one click. The gear beside the room names opens My watch party, which holds End the party.
- Watch Along never appears on videos marked as made for kids, so a party cannot be started on one.
What's next
- Watch Along is the tour of the whole panel.
- See when someone joins your watch party covers what you will and will not be told once the link is out.
Related
Watch Along
See who else is watching, press play together in a watch party, and chat while you watch.
Host a private watch party
Set Who can join before you start. Invite only takes the party off the public surface and lets in anyone holding the link. Followers, Friends and A group go further: they check every arrival at the door, so even someone with the link is turned away unless they belong. Everyone is the open party, and Invite only is what a fresh picker starts on.
See when someone joins your watch party
The panel tells you as it happens: the header count goes up, the new watcher appears under Watching now with their mask name and playhead, and a screen reader hears Someone joined your party. If you are the host, the arrival also lands in your notification bell, so a party you walked away from still reaches you.
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How-to guides
Short answers to the things people actually ask us: bringing YouTube playlists across, starting a watch party and getting friends into it, joining one from a link, masks and voice, creating and sharing feeds, correcting the age on your account, and what each plan includes.
Join a watch party from a link
Open the link and you land on a poster showing the video, who started the party, and how many people are already there. Signed in, one Join takes you to the video with the party running. Signed out, you get Sign in and join, plus Join without signing in when the host allows it.