Party chat
Chat and react with everyone in a watch party, stay private while you do it, and report anything that crosses a line.
When a watch party has chat turned on, a conversation panel rides alongside the video so the group can talk and react while you watch together. Chat is part of a party, so you see it once you are in one and the host has left chat on.
Where to find the chat
Chat is one of the rooms in the Watch Along column beside the video. Click Chat in the rail at the top of the column: the messages fill the room, and the box to type in is pinned at the bottom. Type a line and press Send.
Leaving the Chat room does not close the conversation. Messages keep arriving, and the Chat pill carries a dot while you have not read them.
Hold the phone upright and chat has a card of its own in the Watch Along panel: swipe to Chat, or tap its name in the slim row at the top. The box to type in stays pinned at the foot of the card, and while you are on another card the Chat tab counts the messages you have not read. Beside the box is a small expand button, for when you would rather have the whole screen to write in. The video pauses while that cover is up, and it stays paused after you send or cancel, so nothing starts playing at you the moment you look up from typing. Press play when you are ready.
Turn the phone sideways and chat travels with the rest of Watch Along: tap the Watch Along chip in the bar above the video and the panel slides in beside it, chat included. The video keeps playing next to it. That panel shares its height with everything else, and on a short screen there is no room for a readable log and a box you can reach at the same time, so chat becomes a single Open party chat button with a count of anything that arrived while it was closed. Tap it for the same full-screen conversation. Turn back upright and the Chat card gives the log the whole panel again.
Alongside the messages is a row of quick reactions. Tap one to send it to the whole party. Reactions are a fast way to answer a moment without stopping to type.
How you appear in chat
You chat under the same identity you chose for the party: Masked by default, or Visible if you opted in. Each message keeps the name you had when you sent it, so switching yourself to Visible later never reaches back and reveals who sent your earlier messages. Masked means masked, in chat as everywhere else.
Slow mode
Busy parties turn on slow mode automatically, which asks everyone to wait a few seconds between messages. It keeps a large room readable and gives the moderation checks room to work. If you send too quickly, the box tells you how long to wait. Slow mode is about pace, not permission: everyone can still take part.
Keeping chat safe
Chat in parties that strangers can reach is checked automatically as messages come in. A message that breaks the rules is quietly replaced with a short "Message removed" note in place of the text, so the conversation keeps its shape without carrying the removed content.
You can also report any message yourself. Open the message and choose Report message, pick a reason, and add a note if you want. Reporting is open to everyone in a party, including guests who joined without an account. You will not get a personal reply, and every report is reviewed. After you send one, you get an on-screen reference you can keep for your records.
Chat disappears when the party ends
Party chat lives only for the length of the party. When the host ends it, or the party wraps up on its own after the host is gone, the conversation goes with it. It is not saved to your account or anyone else's. The only exception is a message you or someone else reported, which the trust and safety team keeps on record so it can act on the report.
Turning chat off
Whether a party has chat at all is the host's choice, set when the party is running. If a host prefers a quiet, follow-along room, they can leave chat off and the party still plays in sync for everyone.
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