BBC Together enables groups of people to remotely watch the same BBC programme at the same time

BBC Together image

BBC R&D is developing a tool to enable people in different locations to watch content on BBC iPlayer together.

A beta version of the software – called BBC Together – was being promoted by BBC R&D just before Christmas, to help enable families separated due to Covid-19 restrictions, to catch up on BBC programming together.

The way BBC Together works is you find something you want to watch with others on BBC iPlayer (or BBC Sounds, BBC Bitesize, BBC News and Sport websites), and paste the link from there into BBC Together.

This creates a new group session, and you then send the link to this group session to friends and family, who, when they click the link, see the same programme at the same time as everyone else you’ve invited to the BBC Together session.

The creator of the BBC Together session can pause, play, seek, or choose a new programme for everyone to watch together.

Unlike other watch together platforms, BBC Together doesn’t currently enable you to view videos of your friends and family on the same screen, while watching together. However, in a blog post, BBC R&D explains: “It’s designed for small groups to watch programmes in a closely synchronised fashion so that you can text, audio or video chat at the same time as watching.”

BBC Together works with almost any BBC audio or video and doesn’t need any additional software to be installed. It’s currently available to try out on BBC Taster at https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/bbc-together.

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