Watch videos with friends in real time

Watching videos with friends should be one click

The original promise of watching things online with friends was simple: open a link, hit play together, hang out in chat. Somewhere along the way it got buried under accounts, server boosts, browser extensions, and apps that want every permission on your machine.

We built YourStreamshare to put that one-click experience back. Create a room, send the link, watch. That's the whole flow. The only requirement is a modern browser on each end.

What you can watch in a room

Anything your browser can play, your room can share. The host picks the source; everyone else watches a synced view of it.

• A browser tab— Great for streaming sites, livestreams, and anything web-based. Audio is captured automatically on Chromium browsers.
• A local video file— Drag a file into the room and it plays from the host's device with synced controls for everyone.
• An entire screen or window— Useful when the source is a desktop app rather than a tab.
• Cameras and microphones— Optional. Most rooms only enable mics for voice chat over the video.

How playback stays in sync

The host's player is the timeline of truth. When the host plays, pauses, or seeks, those events are broadcast over the same peer-to-peer mesh that carries the video. Viewers run a small sync loop that nudges their local player back into alignment whenever it drifts more than a frame or two.

On a healthy connection the difference between viewers is usually under 200 milliseconds. On flaky Wi-Fi, the loop slows down playback briefly to let the slowest peer catch up before continuing.

Bandwidth, devices, and quality

The bandwidth needed depends on the resolution the host is broadcasting. 480p is comfortable on a typical home connection; 1080p needs more upstream from the host. The viewer side is essentially the same as watching a regular video: anything that can stream Netflix can join a room.

Most rooms work great across desktop, mobile, and TV browsers. Battery saver mode caps the encode at 480p so the host's laptop doesn't roast itself during a long movie night.

Send the link and you're done

Once a room is open, the invite link is the only thing you have to share. Drop it in a group chat, an SMS, an email, or wherever your friends already are. Anyone who clicks lands in the room as a viewer, no signup or app install in between.