Netflix Party 1.3.8

Netflix has become quite popular due to its large database of movies and convenience. The ability to organize remote parties has made the platform even cooler. Netflix Party is a Google Chrome extension that helps users to synchronize the playback of Netflix videos on multiple computers. You can even use it to strengthen the long-distance relationship between you and that someone special.

Basically, the software uses the client-server model where clients connect to a server for synchronization of the playback state. The platform uses Node.js for the server because its low-latency allows many clients to connect at a time. It automatically vacuums sessions that have remained idle for over an hour.

Using Netflix Party

When we had installed the Google Chrome extension, we needed to log into our Netflix account to use it. Once we were logged in, we could either join existing sessions or create new ones. In either case, we only needed to click the extension button.

Whether we were creating new sessions or joining existing ones, we simply needed to share session IDs. We joined existing sessions using the provided IDs while we allowed others to join the sessions we had created by sharing relevant IDs with them.

We could control playback as usual, whether we wanted to play, pause or stop the playback. The program simulated the playback buttons, which appeared when we moved the cursor. The intuitive software was designed to distinguish between real and simulated user actions. Displaying the buttons and controlling playback sometimes took a few seconds due to buffering issues. However, using the program was still convenient.

The play buttons automatically disappeared after a few seconds by default. However, we noticed that when we accidentally fired a click event, the controls remained visible. To counter that state, we had to simulate another click on some part of the video.

To control the playback position, we moved the cursor to display the buttons and then simulated the cursor over the playback slider. We had to wait for the thumbnail preview to appear for the slider to be active before clicking at the desired position.

Conclusion

Netflix Party is an intuitive extension for Google Chrome browser that enables users to synchronize video playback irrespective of their locations. You can even use it between countries on different time zones because the server relies on its own time. You will enjoy watching your favorite movies with your close friends as if they are truly close geographically.