During this time of fighting to protect ourselves from COVID-19 (Coronavirus), being in quarantine and social distancing can get quite lonely. I received an Essence article titled Coronavirus & Chill: 5 Ways To Play With Your Friends During Quarantine.
I’ve tested out all 5 ways, but my favorite has to the Netflix Party. It’s basically a new way to watch Netflix with your friends online.The google chrome extension basically synchronizes video playback and adds group chat to your favorite Netflix shows.
At the last minute I decided to take it for a spin. I told my Instagram followers to meet me at the link in my bio and a total of five people showed up (including me). One left immediately, three stayed but only two interacted with me. Sounds like the into to a word problem! Right?
After the party ended, I saw over 20 messages of people telling me the wanted to join, but didn’t understand the concept or know how to set it up.
This Is How It Works
Install Netflix Party
To install Netflix Party, start off by clicking the “Install Netflix Party” button on this page. Next, click “Add to Chrome” to finish installing Netflix Party.

Open a Video in Netflix
Go to Netflix’s website. Choose any show you would like to watch and start playing the video.
Create your party
To create your party, click on the red “NP” icon located next to the address bar. Next, you will click “Start Party” to begin. After that you can share the party URL to invite friends.
Join a Netflix Party
To join a party click on the party URL, which will redirect to Netflix’s website. Then click on the “NP” button next to the address bar, and you should automatically join the party.

It’s a pretty decent experience. The only downside is that you can only do this from a desktop or laptop. It is only available through google chrome.
