How to use the HBO Max watch party function to stream with friends

People started getting creative with their social time during the COVID-19 lockdowns. One popular way to stay connected with friends was to have virtual watch parties, with friend groups streaming the same content at the same time. That can be tricky without a service to help sync everyone up. People are back to watching movies and TV together in person, but the concept remains popular with a lot of people. If you’re an HBO Max subscriber, your best bet is the HBO Max watch party browser extension.

HBO Watch Party lets you stream along with your friends in other places. That way you can watch all your favorite streaming shows and movies as a group. And you can chat while it plays. We’ll walk you through all the details. If you’re not already a member, you can sign up for HBO Max at the link below.

What is an HBO Max watch party?

HBO Watch Party is pretty simple. It’s a browser extension that allows you to share your streaming progress with friends who are also logged in at the same time as you. It’s compatible with Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

In short, you all watch at the same rate, making it easier to chat in real time about what you’re watching using a built-in chat function. There’s no, “Oh, I’m not at that part yet,” when you reference a scene or a line in the group chat.

One person creates the watch party and invites other viewers to watch along.

Yes, you could do this by syncing up on the phone and pressing play at the same time as everyone else, but it’s imprecise. You’ll also need to coordinate pausing to go to the bathroom or refill your glass or popcorn bowl. This just cuts all that extra unnecessary work out.

Does HBO Watch Party cost anything?

The extension is free, and there’s no limit to how many people can be in a single watch party.

What you will have to pay for is HBO Max. Everyone you invite has to be logged in to their own HBO Max account to participate. That means that while the extension itself comes at no extra cost, it doesn’t let you share your account or bypass subscribing.

How to install the extension

First, you’ll want to to the HBO Watch Party page on the Chrome web store, Firefox extensions site, or Microsoft Edge add-ons site.

There, you’ll follow the onscreen instructions to install the extension onto your browser of choice. For Chrome, it will look like the following:

• Tap the Add to Chrome button
• Tap the Add Extension button
• Tap the puzzle icon on right side of the Chrome bar
• Pin the extension using the pin in front of the extension name HBO Max Watch Party

After it’s installed, using the HBO Max watch party extension is easy. Just play a video on HBO Max and tap the extension icon to create a watch party. Then, share the URL with anyone you wish to invite to your HBO Max watch party. That’s it. They’ll need to install the extension and log into HBO Max, and then they can follow the link you send to join.

Happy watching!