If you're missing watching TV or listening to music with family and friends, help is at hand. The BBC has launched a new feature that lets you watch or listen to its shows online together with friends and family; essentially, it's a BBC version of Netflix Party.
It's called BBC Together, and it's available now.
BBC Together is an experimental feature and therefore only available from Taster, the Beeb's testing ground for new technologies. Multiple people can simultaneously watch and listen to shows from the BBC's iPlayer, Sounds, Bitesize, News and Sport platforms, allowing people to comment Gogglebox-style and maintain a sense of communal viewing.
As well as pure entertainment value, it could be a valuable tool for students, who can use it to study together.
Whoever is 'hosting' the session picks any show from any of the above BBC platforms. They'll then get a link to share with family and friends. The host hits 'play' to get it started and can also pause, rewind, skip forward or pick a different show for everyone to watch, effectively putting them in charge of the remote control.
"There may be physical distance between us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy great programmes with our friends, family, colleagues and classmates," said Dr Libby Miller, senior R&D producer at BBC R&D. "We wanted to see if technology could bring people together to watch and listen to BBC shows remotely as a shared experience, which we’ve done with BBC Together."
MORE:
13 best homeschooling shows on YouTube, iPlayer, Netflix and more
Here's how to stream TV shows and movies for free (including Disney Plus)
22 of the best live music streams and virtual concerts to watch online
