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Disney+ just nuked the group watch feature

Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
23,010
The once-handy tool allowed streamers to watch any title in the Disney Plus library virtually with friends and family, automatically syncing their devices so that everyone in a group could watch together.

The GroupWatch feature was originally launched during the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed people to still be able to watch movies with their friends and family whilst adhering to social distancing rules. However, as of late, there is no trace of the feature on the website.

ComicBook found this notice on the Disney Plus help center: "As of September 18, 2023, the GroupWatch feature will no longer be available on Disney+. We're always working to deliver the best product experience on Disney+, and as part of recent updates, the GroupWatch feature was removed."
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www.gamesradar.com

Disney Plus just removed one of its most popular features

Looks like the days of Disney watch parties are over
www.gamesradar.com www.gamesradar.com

Wow, talk about bullshit. Have been using this a lot to watch shows with my brother and all of the sudden its just gone. Cant really see a reason behind it either, the feature was complete and I doubt it took much maintenance
 
IDontBeatGames

IDontBeatGames

ThreadMarksman
Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,628
New York
tenor.gif
 
SealedSeven

SealedSeven

Prophet of Regret
The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
2,060
"We're always working to deliver the best product experience on Disney+, and as part of recent updates, the GroupWatch feature was removed."

That's doing the exact opposite of what your intending.
 
riotous

riotous

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,545
Seattle
Anything can happen; you don't know how hard something is to maintain.. or even the potential for them finding some sort of vulnerability with the endpoints involved.
 
CloseTalker

CloseTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,499
Never used this myself, but not sure why they'd remove it. Everyone still needs to be subscribed or signed in
 
mreddie

mreddie

Member
Oct 26, 2017
45,532
Groupwatch wasn't even good to use, also it's funny this was nuked to prevent PW sharing when the feature only worked if you and the people in the group also had + accounts.
 
IDontBeatGames

IDontBeatGames

ThreadMarksman
Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,628
New York
SealedSeven said:
"We're always working to deliver the best product experience on Disney+, and as part of recent updates, the GroupWatch feature was removed."

That's doing the exact opposite of what your intending.
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I swear, as convenient as this streaming era is considering we do have hours upon hours of highly produced content at the palm of our hands, this experience continues to only get worse. Whether it's removing a ton of shows, movies or features, it all sucks cause we continue to lose more as these services charge more.
 
louiedog

louiedog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,647
Never used it on Disney+, but when my partner had covid we isolated from each other in the house and used the Plex group watch feature for our local content. It was great.

CloseTalker said:
Never used this myself, but not sure why they'd remove it. Everyone still needs to be subscribed or signed in
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You'd think it would even be a reason for people to have to have their own subscriptions instead of sharing.
 
ScoobsJoestar

ScoobsJoestar

Member
May 30, 2019
4,071
I went on a journey reading this. "What did they nuke--oh shit that sounds like it would be really fun and -- oh right I'm finding out about this as they nuked it."
 
stopmrdomino

stopmrdomino

Member
Jun 25, 2023
5,359
every company just slowly following in niantic's footsteps: remove any cool and interesting features you added during the lockdowns and quarantines, those are getting in the way of selling more things
 
TrubbleFrog

TrubbleFrog

Member
Feb 23, 2018
941
I use this to watch movies with my wife when we're sitting in the office together. Literally used it to watch Elemental a few nights ago. Boo!
 
Ernest

Ernest

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,798
So.Cal.
When you look back, all these tech companies (facebook, instagram, twitter, etc) reached a peak, the kept fudging with things that worked and are now a shadow of what they used to be at their best - though at the time, we had no idea they were at their best, and that they would devolve so much. Same with all these streaming platforms - especially with music - enjoy your music streaming now, because I think they will hobble that more and more in the coming years.
 
SigSig

SigSig

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,777
some dumb shit. guess who can still group-watch? people who don't pay.
making piracy more convenient than the product you sell sure is a business model.
 
platocplx

platocplx

2020 Member Elect
Member
Oct 30, 2017
36,153
Kinthey said:
www.gamesradar.com

Disney Plus just removed one of its most popular features

Looks like the days of Disney watch parties are over
www.gamesradar.com www.gamesradar.com

Wow, talk about bullshit. Have been using this a lot to watch shows with my brother and all of the sudden its just gone. Cant really see a reason behind it either, the feature was complete and I doubt it took much maintenance
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Yeah thats crappy. I do know apple had a built in SharePlay feature that I think could work but idk if android based devices also had an equivalent over a call which is the only reason I could see the scrapping their own version of it.
 
Golbez

Golbez

Member
Oct 20, 2020
2,562
"We're always working to deliver the best product experience"

*kills one of the best features of said product* 🤡
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,754
Damn that's a shame because like... I assume this just affects kids watching Disney+ the most.

"Children, gather round while I teach you the software development principle of sunk cost fallacy."
 
SageShinigami

SageShinigami

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,972
So to use this you had to have your own Disney+? In that case we're just making a service worse for no reason.
 
metsallica

metsallica

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,144
I've never gotten this feature to work on any service that offers it since most of the time I want to watch with people in different countries. There's always a rights restriction, even when the streamer holds rights in both countries. It's a real shame.
 
Android Sophia

Android Sophia

The Absolute Sword
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
6,224
I used this with a friend to watch The Mandalorian. It was great. Real shame to see it removed as it worked well too.
 
FinKL

FinKL

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
3,028
Nuked group watch, but maybe they have a live stream feature coming up! Imagine, a new movie premiere dropping at exactly the same time for everyone! I thought it was wack that when Marvel was doing the watch parties with the Russo's years ago, they said "Ok everyone press play, NOW!" why can't Disney just sync the time for everyone...
 
Wonky Mump

Wonky Mump

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,519
Kinthey said:
www.gamesradar.com

Disney Plus just removed one of its most popular features

Looks like the days of Disney watch parties are over
www.gamesradar.com www.gamesradar.com

Wow, talk about bullshit. Have been using this a lot to watch shows with my brother and all of the sudden its just gone. Cant really see a reason behind it either, the feature was complete and I doubt it took much maintenance
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They're about to introduce policy for preventing folks sharing passwords - that's bound to be part of the logic for this.
 
Kyou

Kyou

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,962
"We're always working to deliver the best product experience on Disney+, and as part of recent updates, the GroupWatch feature was removed"

'We're making this worse for your benefit, actually'
 
Izzy

Izzy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
713
You know if they said this was kind of difficult or took up a lot of backend resources I could understand that. But just to pull it is weird. I used this a lot.
 
Fuzzy

Fuzzy

Completely non-threatening
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,287
Toronto
FinKL said:
Nuked group watch, but maybe they have a live stream feature coming up! Imagine, a new movie premiere dropping at exactly the same time for everyone! I thought it was wack that when Marvel was doing the watch parties with the Russo's years ago, they said "Ok everyone press play, NOW!" why can't Disney just sync the time for everyone...
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They can and have already had live events on Disney+.
 
WonderingRogue

WonderingRogue

Banned
Jul 7, 2021
3,148
I never understood this feature... Are you guys on facetime or something while watching the movie as well? I don't get the purpose...
 
Cat Party

Cat Party

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,677
So....is there any service out there that allows you to screenshare a stream? All the normal ones I know of block that from happening. I just want to be able to watch stuff with my kid in college.
 
excelsiorlef

excelsiorlef

Bad Praxis
Member
Oct 25, 2017
73,704
It never worked well tbh on apps... for me anyway

I tried it a few tears ago and it sucked and never synced I just gave up and we did the 321 play thing
 
Lukar

Lukar

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 27, 2017
24,205
WonderingRogue said:
I never understood this feature... Are you guys on facetime or something while watching the movie as well? I don't get the purpose...
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My friend group is scattered across the world, so being able to chill in Discord with a Plex / D+ / whatever tab open is nice.
 
EternalDarko

EternalDarko

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,633
Never used this myself, but there must have been some kind of problem for them to need to remove it.
I'd imagine there are security flaws or potential compromises from the feature that necessitated it being taken down, that or it cost too much to maintain considering low levels of customer usage..

It'd be nice if business were more transparent in these kinds of situations, but you'll rarely find that.
 
Benzychenz

Benzychenz

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 1, 2017
15,539
Australia
This seems like a dumb feature to start with tbh.

You taking your eyes off the screen to text one another your live reactions or what? I'd save the texting for afterwards anyway in which case being a minute out of sync doesn't matter in the slightest lol.

I suppose with how often my ex and my sister etc sit on their phones during movies I can believe it though. Personally if I'm watching something my phone is down and out. Full concentration.
 
KentP

KentP

Member
Oct 28, 2017
716
Hilarious timing on this, my wife's away on a business trip next week and we'd talked about using this feature for the first time ever to watch Only Murders in the Building together. No big shakes but seems dumb to remove it
 
Plinkerton

Plinkerton

Member
Nov 4, 2017
6,262
WonderingRogue said:
I never understood this feature... Are you guys on facetime or something while watching the movie as well? I don't get the purpose...
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Benzychenz said:
This seems like a dumb feature to start with tbh.

You taking your eyes off the screen to text one another your live reactions or what? I'd save the texting for afterwards anyway in which case being a minute out of sync doesn't matter in the slightest lol.

I suppose with how often my ex and my sister etc sit on their phones during movies I can believe it though. Personally if I'm watching something my phone is down and out. Full concentration.
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Have people forgotten the pandemic already? This feature was an absolute godsend for me to stay connected with friends/family I couldn't physically see in person. We could watch a show together and message each other our reactions and have a small bit of normality during that time.

Also these shows are Marvel and Star Wars, its not like they require your full undivided attention at all times. If you take your eyes away from the screen for a few seconds, you're unlikely to miss anything important.
 
starpower

starpower

Digital Dumpster Diver
Banned
Jan 23, 2018
4,103
Canada
friend and I use this feature in plex sometimes, it's fun riffing on media together in discord
 
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