Hands-On With iOS 15's SharePlay Feature

[MacRumors]

With the iOS 15.1 update that launched in late October, Apple added SharePlay, a feature that's designed to let you do more over FaceTime. Using SharePlay, you can watch movies, listen to music, and use apps with friends and family, and we thought we'd give it a try to see how it works.

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The first step with any SharePlay experience is to start FaceTime. You can use SharePlay with one person or with multiple people, but everyone needs to have a device running iOS 15.1. SharePlay is also coming to the Mac in macOS Monterey 12.1, but the update is still in beta at this time.

In a FaceTime call, just swipe out of the FaceTime interface and open any app that supports SharePlay, like Apple Music or Apple TV. From there, select a song or a TV show/movie to share with others, and you'll see a prompt to initiate the SharePlay experience.

Each person on the FaceTime call will also see a prompt to join SharePlay, and once all parties have agreed, content is synced between everyone on the call. With apps that include media, such as Apple TV, participants have control over media playback so anyone can play or pause the content, with everyone seeing the action.

Volume and closed captioning are controlled individually, and SharePlay is designed to lower the volume of what's playing when someone speaks so you don't miss any commentary. With apps like Apple Music, everyone can change the song that's playing or add something to the queue.

It's worth noting that whichever content that's being SharePlayed, each person needs to have access. With Apple TV, for example, users need to be subscribed, and the same goes for Apple Music. If you try to play a movie that you own from iTunes, the person on the other end needs to own the movie too or it won't work.

Third-party apps support SharePlay too, and we found that one of the best experiences was with TikTok. After opening up the app and initiating the SharePlay experience, all parties involved can scroll through TikTok and watch the same videos with one another.

Again, each person needs to own the app in question for the SharePlay experience. We tried Spotify, but each person on the call needs to be a Spotify premium subscriber to listen together, which is not always an ideal experience. In situations where everyone on the call doesn't own the same media, the content will play for who does own it, and others are able to remain on the FaceTime call to continue to chat.

Twitch, Spotify, TikTok, Apollo, and other apps all support SharePlay, and Apple has said apps like Disney+ and Hulu will work with it too, but we couldn't get these to activate in our testing so support is not yet implemented. Netflix, YouTube, and other apps that might be popular to use with SharePlay also don't have support at this time. We have a dedicated list of apps that work with SharePlay for those interested.

SharePlay can also be used for screen sharing purposes, which is great if you need to help someone with a device issue or if you want to plan something with multiple people. For Apple Fitness+ users, SharePlay allows for group workouts, which is great for long distance workouts together. In our testing, SharePlay was a little bit choppy in just one of our test calls, but overall worked well, and it was definitely processor intensive, so expect battery drain when using the feature.

If you have an Apple TV or another AirPlay compatible device, SharePlay can be AirPlayed to your TV so you can watch content on a bigger screen while remaining on a FaceTime call.

Have you tried out SharePlay? Let us know what you think in the comments.


Article Link: Hands-On With iOS 15's SharePlay Feature

 

[Eso]

I tried to share play some Apple TV content with someone family sharing with my Apple ID. One of us always had a black screen. I don’t know if it was a bug or if wasn’t happy with 2 devices watching simultaneously (which seems pretty stupid if so)

 

[Roses3]

I’m confused, why state that everyone on Spotify needing to have premium is not always an ideal experience when it’s the exact same issue for Apple Music. Everyone needs to essentially have a “premium/paid” account for Apple Music so wouldn’t the experience not be “ideal” for both?

 

[Attirex]

Too complicated. Pass. I'll just send my two friends a text and tell them that I watched a great TV show they should see.

 

[AL2TEACH]

I’m confused, why state that everyone on Spotify needing to have premium is not always an ideal experience when it’s the exact same issue for Apple Music. Everyone needs to essentially have a “premium/paid” account for Apple Music so wouldn’t the experience not be “ideal” for both?

lol, your comment made me glance at the article.

 

[leepalisoc]

I’m confused, why state that everyone on Spotify needing to have premium is not always an ideal experience when it’s the exact same issue for Apple Music. Everyone needs to essentially have a “premium/paid” account for Apple Music so wouldn’t the experience not be “ideal” for both?

 

[WiseAJ]

Seems like the next step would be to eliminate the Facetime requirement and just directly shareplay the content.

 

[abotsis]

I watched the new Sopranos with a high school buddy that lives across the country. It worked well, with one exception: watching on appletv. In that case, the facetime stays active on (in my case) my ipad, and the movie was on appletv. This all worked well, except for audio. When it came to audio, I had two choices: move conversation audio to my airpods (which was annoying because I couldn't hear the movie) or move movie audio to my airpods (which was annoying because I couldn't hear my friend). In both cases, it sucked. If I took my airpods out, then the movie audio would play for my friend over facetime, resulting in an echo. Gah.

 

[JosephAW]

All this share playing is getting the pieces in place for the Apple iGlass experience.

 

[ghostface147]

I think this is how my stepdaughter and her guy friend watch movies together. I don't know. Teenagers.

 

[ELman]

I found this too cumbersome and more trouble than it's worth. With a child account I'm not sure how this will work for them since they are not the one subscribed to the service.

 

[Baretta]

I want this feature to fetch Music content from Spotify for Spotify users.
The content libraries are similar mostly

 

[HiRez]

So wait, I can't just use SharePlay from the Apple TV, I have to stream it to the Apple TV from the phone? That's not ideal. I thought the content would play directly from the Apple TV box.

 

[mansplains]

I didn't realize until now that all parties need to be subscribers/own all shared content. Granted, I didn't look into SharePlay since streaming via Discord has worked well for me. Considering DRM it makes some sense to have this limitation, but I guess I don't have a use case for SharePlay. My friends don't need an account for HBO to sit on the couch with me and share IRL, over FaceTime should be the same in my mind.

 

[1284814]

Here is a better tech put the phone behind you (while on face time) and your screen, play media and use a make up mirror so they can see your face. And cooperate - for volume and rewind. No extra cost.

 

[Appleman3546]

I turned off all of the share play stuff, I don't want other imessage people knowing what I am doing and this is a poor attempt at metaversing

 

[alexhardaker]

I watched the new Sopranos with a high school buddy that lives across the country. It worked well, with one exception: watching on appletv. In that case, the facetime stays active on (in my case) my ipad, and the movie was on appletv. This all worked well, except for audio. When it came to audio, I had two choices: move conversation audio to my airpods (which was annoying because I couldn't hear the movie) or move movie audio to my airpods (which was annoying because I couldn't hear my friend). In both cases, it sucked. If I took my airpods out, then the movie audio would play for my friend over facetime, resulting in an echo. Gah.

Yeah, I was annoyed that I couldn’t have the audio through AirPods while having the video play on my Apple TV 4K. Even with the FaceTime audio through the AirPods & watching the content on my phone, I could hear my friend’s Apple TV playing the same content

 

[Westside guy]

I suspect the kids will just keep on using Discord for this - sure it's not legal, but it works, it's simple and it doesn't have all these silly limitations like "everyone has to own a copy" and "only works with Apple devices".

 

[sinsin07]

Not sure about all the above problems but this worked well for me and grandson.
Glad Apple included this feature.
Hope Disney, HBOMax, Prime and Hulu join soon.
Not holding out hope for Netfilx.

 

[friedmud]

My main question: can I watch the movie / TV Show at 4k with Dolby Atmos using my Apple TV?

What I mean is - is what you are watching just a "cast" from your phone? Or does it actually open the app/movie/show on the Apple TV natively?

 

[SFjohn]

SharePlay is something I don’t see myself ever using.

 

[ShawnTXDFW]

Is anybody else having issues with Apple Music playing in SharePlay? It’s constantly loading and never plays. Or it takes FOREVER! I’m not sure if this has been posted or not. But I reset my settings, and I just reset my iPhone and restored from backup and still having the same problem. None of this happened until I updated to 15.1.1 iPhone 13 Pro Max, 1TB if that matters. Any info would be greatly appreciated. (I’ve cross posted this a couple of other times. I’d like to figure out where the problem is).

 

[solarflab]

The fact that everyone needs to have access to the content makes this feature dead in the water. Isnt the whole point to simulate couch sharing content with your close and loved ones? They could've just as easily put a limit of say max 5 watchers instead of this corporate ********.

 

[incoherent_1]

The inability to SharePlay content you own (or subscribe to) with someone who doesn’t is a dealbreaker.

This is only useful if it replaces your physical sofa by allowing people to join the experience from afar, and requiring a questionnaire/interview to figure out shared subscription services is nuts. Steve would’ve flipped at this kind of silliness.

What a missed opportunity, especially in these crazy times.

 

[0118577]

SharePlay looks awesome, but TBH I haven't found a use for it yet.