Following Facebook Inc.’s announcement last week around its push to drive more “meaningful social interactions,” the company has announced a test version of “Watch Party.”

The new feature will allow Facebook Groups to watch the same video simultaneously, while the dedicated text comment section will allow further interaction. The new feature will create a “shared viewing experience,” akin to Facebook Live, according to Fidji Simo, Facebook’s vice president of product, who announced the new feature in a post Wednesday.  

The company started rolling out Facebook Live to iOS users at the start of 2016 and has since seen the popularity of this media rise, generating “an average of six times as many interactions as regular videos,” according to Simo.

Watch Parties is rolling out as a test version first with a small selection of Facebook Groups. The company is starting with Groups as it is currently used by over a billion users each month. A Group admin or moderator can select any public video on Facebook, whether it’s live or recorded, and show it to all members at the same time. While watching, Group members can react and comment, which isn’t new for live videos, but will bring the same features to videos that have already been recorded.

If a Group has access to the new feature and a Watch Party is taking place, members will see a Watch Party widget on the Group page. They will also be able to see a list of what videos will be broadcast next. At this stage, though, there’s no way for admins to schedule a Watch Party at a future time or date. Once members join the party, they will be able to see the same video as everyone else and interact accordingly. When watching on a mobile device, any comments will be overlaid on the video, while on desktop comments will appear in the sidebar to the right of the video.

During his announcement last week, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s priority for 2018 would be to make sure the social platform is “good for people’s well-being.” Facebook’s new algorithm will prioritize posts that spark meaningful interactions while demoting posts from businesses and publishers. Zuckerberg admitted that the change could lead to Facebook’s 2 billion users spending less time on the platform, but it wants to ensure that “time spent on Facebook is time well spent.”

The main Facebook platform isn’t the only one set to receive some major changes. The company also plans to make changes to its messaging service. Facebook Messenger chief David Marcus said this week that the platform has become too cluttered and he plans to make the app more user-friendly this year. Facebook Messenger, which split off from the core app in 2014, has grown to 1.3 billion monthly users and allows users to do a variety of tasks, including ordering a pizza, booking a ride, making peer-to-peer payments, playing games and interacting with a variety of chatbots.

Marcus didn’t elaborate on what changes will be made to Messenger, but echoing his boss, he said Facebook’s goal is to “make Messenger the easiest and most delightful way for people to spend time together in happy and harder times.”

Image: Facebook