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| Portland, OR, USA - Feb 2, 2021: Assorted streaming apps are seen on an iPhone, including Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV, Sling TV, Roku, and Hulu. |
When Apple rolled out SharePlay with iOS 15.1 last year, it was only supported by a handful of apps. The list has grown a bit over the past months, with ESPN, Twitch and Disney+ updating their apps with the capability to use the group viewing feature. Now, you can add Hulu to the roster. The streaming service's latest iOS and tvOS update introduces SharePlay as a feature for its iPhone, iPad and Apple TV app, so you can hold watch parties for shows like The Handmaid's Tale or The Dropout, which tells the story of controversial Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
To use SharePlay, all participants in the watch party will have to be on iOS 15.1 or newer and will need to have Hulu accounts and subscriptions. You have to start a FaceTime call before you open the app. After you do, you'll see an alert at the top of your screen asking if you want to stream your content. Anyone who joins the session will have access to the pause, skip forward and rewind controls to make sure you're all watching the same thing at the same time. FaceTime will also have a picture-in-picture box at the top, which will show whoever is talking at the moment. SharePlay even comes with a feature called smart volume that automatically lowers the show's volume whenever somebody in the call is talking.
In addition to SharePlay support, Hulu's latest update has also introduced a new feature that gives you a way to easily flip between the live TV channels you're currently watching. You can now get the update Hulu app from the Apple App Store.