Hello, Screena here!
Today we're going to be writing about the Twitch Watch Party feature that Screena developed! I'll share the why, how, and what trials and errors Screena went through to create the Twitch Watch Party feature.
About Screena
We are a team developing a 'watch party' solution. Watch Party is a service that allows you to watch content and chat live on a streaming platform at the same time. We currently integrate 16 streaming platforms - the most streaming services of any Watch Party platform in existence!
We don't just want to integrate 'famous' OTTs, we want to help people enjoy their favorite content with their friends, so we're integrating OTTs with different characteristics. For example, we've been getting a lot of reports that people want to watch Chinese dramas together, so we've integrated iQIYI and WeTV. We've also integrated VIU because we're getting a lot more Thai users!
Eureka!
Screena users organize a lot of anime watch parties. We realized that anime watch parties were happening on Twitch as well, and we found that Twitch users wanted to do them. They were using PIP mode to watch together!
Twitch watchparty, let's do it!
We knew that Twitch Watch Parties were already possible with Prime Video, but we realized that our users were using a lot of other streaming platforms besides Amazon Prime, such as Netflix.
So we thought, "Why don't we build it?
Screena already works with a lot of streaming platforms (16 to be exact),
but what if we made it possible to do Twitch Watch Parties...?
Streamers usually say "One, two, three, play!" and start a timer. Honestly, it's an inconvenience for both the streamer and the viewer. We thought it would be great if we could solve this small inconvenience, so we decided to start with a timer!
Timer: 7 days of recording
It took us exactly 7 days to go from idea to product.
We tested it internally, and the information was shared in a few clicks!
Previously, streamers had to go through the following items one by one for a watch party broadcast.
Fill out information on the broadcast screen (like what streaming platform they're watching on and what episode they're watching)
Show a timer widget
Start the timer at the right time
But once the timer is developed, all you need to do is this.
Show the timer widget
Hit the play button on the movie tab you're watching
How did people react to the timer?
Check out part 2 to see the results!