How to use W2gSync

user_95f53b7185f71fb · September 30, 2017, 12:18pm

By default Watch2Gether comes with a number of built-in apps that add support for various content platforms such as Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion… If you would like to play content that is not directly supported you can use the W2gSync app.

Basic Workflow

Copy the link to a website that contains a video and paste it into the search bar on Watch2Gether. When a link can not be played directly with one of the build-in apps, the W2gSync app is automatically selected and the related video is displayed in the search results.

From here you can play, suggest or add the video to a playlist just like with any other video. When you decide to “play” the video, the following screen appears in the player for every user in the room.

Each user must now click on Open. The video will then open in a separate window, W2gSync will detect that video and makes sure that playback is in-sync with every user in the room.

W2gSync requires our browser extension to be installed in order to detect and control the video on external sites. The extension is available for Chrome and Firefox. Support for other browsers and mobile devices might be added later.
Download for Chrome
Download for Firefox

A small toolbar at the top of the W2gSync window informs you about the sync status and can be used to control (play/pause/seek) the video.

Important: You have to use the toolbar at the top of the window to control the video playback. If you use the native controls on the site, W2gSync will ingnore these inputs and try to restore the room state instead.

Linking Video Output

By default the video plays in a in a separate window for every user in the room. Sometimes this can be a bit inconvenient when you want to use the chat while watching the video and you have to switch back and forth between the two windows.

To make this case more convenient, every user in a room can individually decide to link the video output from the separate window into the player within the room. To do so, click on Link Video in the player and than select the W2gSync window from the selection dialog.

The content of the W2gSync window is then shown in the player within the room.

Important: Linking the video output needs to be done by each user individually. This is not a screen sharing setup and no screen content is streamed to other users.

Requirements & Restrictions

The synced websites need to implement their video player with HTML5 video. Flash is not supported.
When the website you share requires a login, every user in the room need their own individual login for the site.
Some sites might not work correctly with W2gSync. Please report and we have a look.

shin.na_ra3179 · February 8, 2019, 3:26pm

hello, I am trying to watch a movie with my friend from a website, no matter what website we use or any kind of movie, the extension video does not work for both of us at the same time, we have to watch it individually. we both have the extension tho…

user_95f53b7185f71fb · February 8, 2019, 4:05pm

Can you send me one of the website links you are trying as PM or via email to florian@watch2gether.com i’ll have a look then.

shin.na_ra3179 · February 13, 2019, 5:32pm

does my friend have to be a member to use the extension?

user_95f53b7185f71fb · February 13, 2019, 5:43pm

No it does work for unregistered users as well.

tuffdivinity · February 20, 2019, 6:43am

Hello, any idea when you’re going to be adding the extensions to mobile users, I understand it takes a while (am a developer myself), I was just looking for an estimate, that is you’re even working on it.

Thanks

user_95f53b7185f71fb · February 21, 2019, 10:20am

Thanks for your feedback. The major browser on mobile (Chrome) does not support extensions. Therefore the install base for a mobile extension would be quite small. Additionally it might be difficult reach a good mobile user experiences with the W2gSync Desktop approach. I’m therefore thinking about other options to bring W2gSync to mobile but i can not give you a fixed release date yet.

dangernathan10 · April 30, 2019, 11:34pm

My friend and I just watched The Hunger Games, and we have both decided that we want to watch the rest of the series. Now I have an amazon account that I can use, so if would it be possible for me to log in and insert the link without him having to have an amazon account with the same movie?

user_95f53b7185f71fb · May 1, 2019, 6:42pm

Hi & thanks for getting in touch! W2gSync just syncs up the video playback and does not interfere with logins or accounts.

dangernathan10 · May 1, 2019, 7:59pm

So does that mean that they won’t have to pay?

user_95f53b7185f71fb · May 2, 2019, 8:28am

No, every user needs his / her own account.

iluvtacos123 · August 1, 2019, 9:48pm

Is there any way for the video that I’m playing to show up on the screen instead of in a separate pop-up? How do I type in chat while watching it?

user_95f53b7185f71fb · August 1, 2019, 10:05pm

Right now you have to arrange the two windows on the screen so that it works for you. We’ll add a copy of the chat to the video window in one of the next releases though.

rburdick17 · August 2, 2019, 2:45am

Hi! My girlfriend and I tried watching Hulu with W2gSync, but I don’t think the video was syncing properly. We noticed that my video was about 2 minutes ahead of hers, and when her video got to the commercial in Hulu, she would be seeing the video of the commercial but hearing the audio from where I am at in the TV show. When I tried to pause so her video could catch up to mine, both of our videos kept pausing/playing and we couldn’t seem to figure out how to get both to play in sync.
Any help is much appreciated! Thanks!

user_95f53b7185f71fb · August 2, 2019, 9:09am

Thanks for your feedback! I haven’t tested W2gSync with Hulu yet but i’ll try to look into it!

jwhisman1689 · August 18, 2019, 2:49am

<-- we are trying to use this site to watch an old movie but it doesn’t show any video. Does it not register the site or am i doing something wrong?

user_95f53b7185f71fb · August 18, 2019, 7:11am

Thanks, I’ll look into that tomorrow!

rburdick17 · September 30, 2019, 11:31pm

Any updates on using Hulu?

user_79829ffd7a32fdf · May 17, 2020, 7:18am

I’ve had some very quirky results using Amazon. Sometimes when I go on to the next video, it works just fine – but sometimes it gets into a loop where it thinks I’m at the end of the video and I’ve occasionally been skipped ahead multiple episodes as it kept jumping to the end of the video. Ideas?

Additionally, I’ve also gotten some odd effects sometimes where one person stays paused rather than jumping to where I am – or just keeps pausing and has to unpause (this might have been an attempt to slowsync? BUt if so it should be much more obvious that that’s what’s happening).

user_95f53b7185f71fb · May 17, 2020, 2:54pm

Thanks a lot for your feedback! With how many persons did you use W2gSync?