Many online streaming platforms have launched a feature called Watch Party, which allows multiple users to join a group, and then through the Internet connection, these users can watch movies, TV shows, etc. together. What’s more interesting is that while watching videos together in real-time, participants can also chat and interact in various ways. Therefore, using the Watch Party feature in the streaming platform with friends has become a social activity that many people like. Among the many streaming platforms, Disney Plus is loved by many users. However, in 2023, users suddenly found that the Watch Party feature called GroupWatch provided by Disney Plus was no longer available, and we couldn’t even find this feature on the Disney Plus platform. Disney Plus GroupWatch Gone? Why did Disney Plus remove GroupWatch? This tutorial will discuss these issues in detail. In order to continue watching Disney Plus with friends, this tutorial also specifically introduces the best Disney Plus video downloader and other tools that can help us achieve this goal.
Part 1: Disney Plus GroupWatch Gone?
Among all streaming platforms, watch party Disney Plus is not the first to be launched, but the GroupWatch feature of Disney Plus is one of the best watch party features, and many Disney Plus users love this feature. The GroupWatch feature of Disney Plus was launched in September 2020, allowing users to create a group and invite up to 6 users to join, and then group watch Disney Plus. However, on September 18, 2023, Disney Plus issued a notice stating that the GroupWatch feature would no longer be available. This decision of Disney Plus has also caused dissatisfaction among many users, and many people believe that Disney Plus has deleted a very valuable feature. Therefore, we can no longer use the Disney Plus GroupWatch feature to watch Disney Plus with family or friends.
Part 2: Why Did Disney Plus Remove GroupWatch?
Disney Plus officials did not directly give the reason why the Disney+ watch party feature was removed. However, many people have speculated and analyzed this from multiple angles, and I think the following may be the main reasons for the removal of watch party on Disney Plus:
1. Cost reduction
You know, in recent years, the strike of Disney’s screenwriters and actors has been ongoing, which has also caused a serious delay in the production of many Disney movies and TV shows. Therefore, Disney began a large-scale cost-cutting campaign and believed that the cost of providing users with the service of the group watching Disney Plus was not worth it. Therefore, the GroupWatch feature of Disney Plus was removed.
2. Covid-19 is over
Earlier, many Americans were unable to go out because of the raging Covid-19 in the United States. Therefore, using the GroupWatch feature on the Disney Plus platform to watch Disney Plus with family or friends has become an important social activity for many people. In this way, people get in touch with family or friends and kill time. However, the negative impact of Covid-19 is gradually disappearing, and people can also meet with family or friends freely. Therefore, Disney Plus may also think that the GroupWatch feature is no longer important and decide to remove it.
3. Business strategy adjustment
According to the notice released by Disney Plus, Disney Plus has always been committed to providing users with the best product experience. Then, removing the GroupWatch feature may mean that Disney Plus is adjusting its business strategy. Disney Plus evaluates and optimizes the functions within the platform from time to time to ensure the continuous improvement of user experience.
4. Technical challenges
Disney Plus’s GroupWatch feature allows multiple users to play Disney Plus videos simultaneously on different devices and network environments, which may pose certain technical challenges. For example, if a user’s current network environment is poor and there is severe network latency, Disney Plus needs to adjust the playback of multiple users at the same time so that they can watch Disney Plus videos simultaneously. Disney Plus’s GroupWatch feature may cause many technical difficulties. Therefore, Disney Plus chose to remove this feature.
Part 3: How to Watch Disney Plus with Friends
Although we can no longer watch Disney Plus with friends directly on the Disney Plus platform, it does not mean that there are no other ways to help us achieve this goal. Regarding how to group watch Disney Plus? You can try using the following tools.
1. CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader
We need to maintain a good network environment and other conditions to get a good viewing experience when watching Disney Plus online with others. Therefore, when using the GroupWatch function of Disney Plus, I sometimes encounter situations where others cannot watch Disney Plus with me, which seriously affects my experience of watching Disney Plus with friends. Here, I provide readers with a brand-new idea, that is, we can first use the best Disney Plus downloader to download Disney Plus videos, and then invite friends to watch these Disney Plus videos together on a big screen offline. This will definitely get a better viewing experience. Therefore, I recommend CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader to you. It is the best Disney Plus downloader and has the following features:
1. Batch download Disney Plus videos. CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader can easily download videos from Disney Plus in batch. With the help of CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader, we can download multiple Disney Plus videos, entire seasons or even all seasons at the same time, and save them permanently to the device and watch them at any time.
2. Download Disney Plus videos with high efficiency. CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader can batch download Disney Plus videos. Because of the use of hardware acceleration technology, CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader can still download videos faster than other ordinary video downloaders even if it downloads multiple Disney Plus videos at the same time.
3. Ability to download specific subtitles and audio. When downloading a Disney Plus video, CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader can detect the subtitles and audio of all languages of this Disney Plus video and display the detection results to the user. We can select the audio and subtitles we need, and then command CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader to download specific subtitles and audio for this Disney Plus video.
2. Disney Plus Watch Party
Although Disney Plus Watch Party cannot download videos from Disney Plus like CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader, it helps us realize our desire to watch Disney Plus with friends in another way. Disney Plus Watch Party is a browser extension. After installing Disney Plus Watch Party in the browser, we can play Disney Plus in the browser, click the Disney Plus Watch Party icon, and then click the “Start the party” button. Copy the URL and share it with others, and you can invite others to join you to watch Disney Plus. However, the shortcomings of Disney Plus Watch Party are also very obvious. For example: it is only compatible with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, and users must subscribe to Disney Plus.
3. Teleparty
Teleparty’s original name is Netflix Party. Like Disney Plus Watch Party, it is also a browser extension. However, compared with Disney Plus Watch Party, Teleparty is more comprehensive. In addition to providing users with the ability to watch Disney Plus with others, Teleparty also has the same functions as the watch party in streaming platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu, allowing users to watch videos with others on these platforms. Surprisingly, during the viewing process, we can also send texts, emojis, and GIFs in Teleparty to interact with others in real time. Users who become Teleparty Premium members can also directly enable audio and video functions to interact with them by voice or video. However, Teleparty also has the same shortcomings as Disney Plus Watch Party, such as: being only compatible with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, etc. However, using Discord to watch Disney Plus with friends also requires us to subscribe to Disney Plus.
4. Discord
Unlike CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader, Disney Plus Watch Party, and Teleparty, Discord is actually a free online gaming social platform that mainly provides real-time communication, text, voice, video, live broadcast and other functions. Users can live stream gaming content to Discord partners and gaming communities, and live streaming content can be set to broadcast only within specific communities. Therefore, we can create a group of up to 50 people on Discord, and then have real-time voice, video, and text chats with others in the group. Therefore, through Discord, we can watch Disney Plus with friends in real-time, and during the viewing process, we can interact with friends using voice, video, and text.
Conclusion
Disney Plus quietly removed the GroupWatch feature, which means we can no longer watch our favorite Disney Plus videos with friends or family directly on the Disney Plus platform. However, this tutorial also provides 4 tools that can help us continue to watch Disney Plus videos with friends or family. Among these 4 tools, CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader can download Disney Plus videos losslessly while maintaining the quality of the source video, ensuring that we can get the most perfect experience of watching Disney Plus videos. Therefore, use CleverGet Disney Plus Downloader to download Disney Plus videos, and then enjoy watching Disney Plus with friends or family!
