Discord test feature to let users watch YouTube videos together

Gaming chat app Discord has introduced a feature to watch YouTube videos with others in beta on a small number of servers. The feature will appear shortly after the forced shutdown of some Discord music bots.

The feature, which is called Discord Watch Together, functions much the same as the bots that recently had to go black. Users who are in the same voice channel can enable Watch Together, after which one or more users can populate the playlist and control the playback of the videos. The option to give one person control over playback is also there.

Recently, Google ordered the makers of the Discord bots Rythm and Groovy to shut down. The bots made it possible to listen to music in a voice channel with multiple users, from sources such as YouTube. However, no advertising was played here, which was not helpful to Google. With Discord Watch Together, images are included and advertisements are also shown.

The Verge writes that the function already appeared ten months ago in the form of a small-scale test. “We have been informed that there has been some haste to the feature following the recent shutdowns of the music bots,” the tech site added.

The feature is currently being rolled out on Friends & Family servers, according to The Verge, followed by smaller servers, and then all servers. Discord is trying to make the feature available to everyone by the end of October.

Screenshots of the feature, via The Verge