A man’s desire to be able to watch Netflix movies together with his girlfriend who lived on the other side of the United States has led to the creation of a Google Chrome plug-in – Showgoers – that allows users to sync and view Netflix videos.
Jones told CNNMoney that he initially created the browser plug-in as a way for him and his girlfriend to watch Netflix together. The two are in a long distance relationship, Jones on the West Coast and his girlfriend on the East Coast.
It takes three easy steps to make it all work:
- Install Showgoers into your browser, and then sign into Netflix and pick a movie or show.
- Click on the 3-D glasses icon at the top right of the screen and click “Start a Sync Session.” Showgoers will create a link for coordinated viewing.
- Send the Showgoers link to your friends — no limit to how many — then click “Begin Sync.”
Now you, or anyone with the link, can press play and start watching at exactly the same place. When one person pauses or rewinds the video, it will pause or rewind it for everyone. There is a handy chat function that allows users to communicate in case they need to take a bio, or snack break.
Jones says he’s working on improving the plug-in, and has plans to build a Firefox and Safari version of the plug-in. Everyone watching needs a Netflix account, and it won’t work if a user lives in a country where a certain video is blocked from viewing.
There hasn’t been any comment on the plug-in from Netflix, and who knows, they could figure out a way to block this at any time, so we don’t know how long this will continue to work.
To download and install Showgoers on your Chrome browser, visit the plug-in’s website.
