Facebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram is now reportedly testing a new feature that would enable users to co-watch the video content on the platform with their friends and get to see their reactions on the video via their smartphone cameras at the same time.
The feature would give users of the app the option of starting the split screen view and using it they will be able to apply face filters and other visual tools to their personal camera feeds, according to a report in Social Media Today.
Reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong took to Twitter to speak about the upcoming feature. She said, “Instagram’s co-watching media picker is essentially tabs of Explore, Saved and Liked. It’s somehow also showing me photos though. Unless Instagram designed co-watching so we can stare at an image together, it will be fixed when released.”
Instagram's Co-watching media picker is essentially tabs of Explore, Saved and Liked
It's somehow also showing me photos though. Unless Instagram designed Co-Watching so we can stare at an image together, it will be fixed when released pic.twitter.com/dppinRAlBX
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 17, 2019
Besides letting users watch Instagram videos together, the upcoming feature will also provide them with interactive elements of being able to see and listen to their co-viewers in another minimized window. As of now, the option only supports two viewers, besides the Instagram Live function.
The report further added, “That could be somewhat restrictive, but then again, previous research has shown that 85 percent of the messages shared on Instagram are distributed to the same three friends, highlighting a desire for more intimate communication on the platform.”
We should mention that this is not the first time that a report about this feature has surfaced online. Last month, the feature got spotted for the first time and a report surfaced online which claimed that it will be called ‘Co-Watch’. It was also said that CoWatch would let you watch Instagram Stories, videos and IGTV content along with your friends, much like Facebook’s Watch Party. The feature was spotted in Instagram Direct Messaging code.
It is worth noticing that Facebook launched the Watch Party feature on its platform in July and it has said that it has facilitated more than 12 million ‘Watch Parties’. And this number has been given by the company for Facebook Groups starting July to November 2018.
It should be noted that as of now, Instagram has not commented on whether it is working on the feature or not.
In an unrelated piece of news, a different report has also surfaced online claiming that Instagram is considering to completely remove ‘Likes’ from its platform. With this in effect, only the person posting the picture or video will be able to see the likes and not his followers.
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