How to enjoy online movie and gaming nights with your friends

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Many companies – including digitec – use platform such as Microsoft teams to communicate and collaborate. Why shouldn't the same thing work in your private life? It does, with certain restrictions.

The goal:
Watching the same movie or playing the same game as friends and chatting with each other either by texting, better by audio, but ideally by video chat.

Watching TV

After trying out a range of services, my favourite one is Kosmi. It works on a PC or smartphone, costs nothing and doesn't even require signing up. It makes it easy to share your entire screen, a single browser window or a specific application. All you have to do is set up a lobby that's either public or can be accessed with a specific link.

The lobby offers text, voice, and/or video chatting. Your friends' webcams and the chat history are displayed on the side of the screen – as large and wherever you want it to be. The chat function can be disabled if you don't need it.

Whoever creates the lobby is the host. He or she decides what everyone watches. Kosmi supports YouTube, so you only need to add a YouTube link to make it play in the lobby window. For browser-based video services such as Netflix, Swisscom TV or Google Play Movies, you select the «Screenshare» option from the menu and go to the tab where the video service is running. This way, you share what is shown in the tab with your lobby members. If you hear the sound twice, mute the corresponding tab by double-clicking the tab and selecting «Mute website».

One disadvantage of this «Screenshare» option is that you can only share the sound via the Chrome tab. If you use «Screenshare» and open an application outside the browser, a game, for instance, your viewers will see you playing the game, but they will not hear any sound. And if you choose to share your entire screen, you always have to leave the application or video in full screen, otherwise your viewers will see everything twice. On top of this, the host will not see any webcams or chat streams and can therefore only join the conversation via microphone – unless he or she also logs in via smartphone.

. The «CoWatch Video» function is great, as it allows you to play movies you’ve saved locally – with sound. Better than nothing. When I tested it, there was hardly any lag, but the image quality, speed and audio weren’t always great. If you’re not expecting a super-smooth UHD stream, you’ll be happy enough. You’d rather watch on your video than your laptop? No problem: use [Chromecast](/en/s1/product/google-chromecast-ultra-eu-version-streaming-media-player-6932684) to send the tab to your TV or any other device that supports Chromecast. Alternatively, connect your laptop to the TV via an HDMI cable.

Alternatives:
Discord allows you to stream your browser tab instead of a game. It offers great quality, but doesn't allow video chatting at the same time.

Netflix Party, as the name suggests, only works with Netflix and without webcams. Yet, as everyone watches their own stream, the quality is better.

Gaming

To my knowledge, there's no such thing as the perfect tool to play videogames with friends and see each other play. Kosmi isn't perfect, as only the host can play and everyone else either has no sound or the host doesn't see anyone's webcam. Integrated games, such as SNES Party or OpenArena Live, a free «Quake 3 Arena» clone, are exceptions. These allow you to play together to a limited extent. SNES and NES Party are emulators and require ROMs.

Of course there are multiplayer games that you canSNES and NES Party are emulators and require Roms. play with friends and where anything more than voice chat would be distracting anyway. But videocalling would be great for party games. The only solution I found is to play in window mode and use Discord at the same to have a group video chat. Or you can use a second device, a laptop or smartphone, on the side.

Board games

It's similar for board games as it is for computer and console games. However, the fact that you need a physical game makes virtual interaction more difficult. Of course, you could use Kosmi or a chat app to create a virtual room. But that would only work if all the other players had the same board game at home. Unless the game owner performs all physical tasks and executes the moves of the other players, while they just roll the dice and communicate their actions from the comfort of their home. That would work, but it doesn't sound appealing.

That's why I'd cheat a little here and play digital board games instead. To be able to see your opponents, you have to either play in window mode or use your laptop on the side. The website Yucata offers a large selection of classic board games that you can play for free. If you need dice and don't have any, there are many websites that will let you roll virtual dice. Online-würfel.de is one of them.

You'll find even more digital board games on Steam, where you'll find everything from «Catan» to «Scythe», including games for smartphones and tablets. They're all nicely animated and the multiplayer is well integrated.

Even if current circumstances make it difficult to see friends and family, this doesn't mean you can't plan to spend evenings together. The solutions I've just presented may not be perfect, but in my opinion, it's worth the compromise if it means you're rewarded with a fun evening with your loved ones.

Do you know any better solutions? Let me know in the comments!