We regret to inform you that viewing Prime Video series on Twitch with your friends will soon come to an end if you’re among the reportedly small number of folks who are still hosting watch parties now that the pandemic lockdowns are long gone. On April 2, the Amazon-affiliated company will be eliminating the Prime Video Watch Party function from its web streaming platform, nearly four years after it was made available to all users. A few months after the COVID-19 epidemic essentially took down the planet, Twitch brought out the feature to US streamers in 2020 after introducing it in a restricted beta test back in 2019.
You might have used watch parties as a way to connect with other people those days, so that you could still be together even if you couldn’t be at the same place. It may have been a godsend if you’d spent those lockdowns alone and may have helped you get through some really tough, isolating days. According to Variety, almost one-fifth of adults in the US had participated in a virtual co-viewing experience back in 2020. But your habits may have changed after the lockdowns had lifted. You may no longer be using that Peloton bike and home gym setup… and you may no longer be hosting or attending watch parties as often anymore, or at all. Not when you can go to the gym or go to actual theaters with friends.
In Twitch’s announcement, it said that the feature’s usage on its platform has “declined over the years.” Instead of thinking of ways on how to make it more appealing, the company has decided to remove it altogether and to invest its resources in other features.
