You can now watch Disney+ with your friends, from the comfort of your own homes

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Disney+ just rolled out a killer feature in these socially-distanced times – the ability to co-watch with up to six of your friends. It’s called GroupWatch, and it syncs Disney+ playback with everyone in the group, so you can all pretend you’re in the same location.

It’s great to see first-party support for these kinds of features, and Disney is probably hoping that it will bring in more paying subscribers while its theme parks are still closed. It’s compatible with the Disney+ website, iOS and Android devices, smart TVs, and streaming boxes. It’s only available for U.S. subscribers to Disney+ currently, with the UK and Europe slated to get the feature later this year.

Here’s how to use the new Disney+ GroupWatch feature

First, find some friends. They’ll all need to be Disney+ subscribers though, so that might limit your selections.

1. Open Disney+ on your iOS or Android device, or on Disney’s website
   

   Image: KnowTechie

2.  Find a TV show or movie and tap on it
3. Tap on the GroupWatch icon on the details page (it looks like the outline of three people)
   

   Image: KnowTechie

4. Send up to six invitations to other Disney+ subscribers you know
   

   Image: KnowTechie

5. Once everyone has accepted, press play to start watching as a group

The cool thing about GroupWatch is that you can switch to a different device once playback starts, so you can set it up on your smartphone then switch to whatever is connected to your TV if you want the larger screen. Just open Disney+ on that new device and hit the GroupWatch icon again.

Anyone invited to the group can pause, rewind or fast forward the show if they need to take a break, and you can use six emojis to react to the show. Then again, there’s nothing stopping you from calling each other once playback starts, so you can pretend that you are all in the same room.

What do you think? Could you see yourself using this new Disney+ feature? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.