Getting up and running with Kast is a breeze. While this might be perfect for a long distance date night, if you intend on inviting more than one person, you’ll want to look at some of the other services on this list. Unfortunately, Gaze can only be used with two parties simultaneously. Both parties can then immediately start streaming videos in sync.

One user creates a room and sends the link for the room to another person. If your streaming platform of choice is YouTube, then Gaze might be just what you’re looking for. The nice part about Watch2gether is that you have the choice to select or search video sources from YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, or audio from SoundCloud. You have the option to either invite your own friends to a room that you created or join a room that is already in operation and become a part of the viewing party and conversation. Type in your temporary nickname, and it will bring you to a video (and chat) room where you can start adding friends to chat. To get started, simply click the “Create a Room” button on its home page. You need to have the movies you want to watch stored locally on your hard drive, but once you set up, it’s just a case of you and your friend saying you’re “Ready to Watch” and hitting the Play button.

Multi-platform and compatible with all the biggest video player apps out there (including VLC, KM Player and Media Player Classic), Syncplay is a free tool that allows you to sync video streams with friends. There’s even a twoseven Chrome extension that instantly lets you know if a video on a given website is supported in the app and lets you share it with your friend with a couple of clicks. The browser-based app has built-in text and video capabilities, so you don’t have to rely on an external video chat app to see your friend and share your video-viewing experience with them face-to-face. Twoseven supports YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo and Crunchyroll so far, but crucially it also lets you watch private videos either person has on their PC (only one of you has to own the video).

Real time video player