popcornpals
Start a room

popcornpals presents

Movie night, together, in sync.

Watch the same video at the same moment with up to 4 friends. Invite them with six words, then talk, chat and react.

Start a room How it works
  • Up to 5 people
  • No account
  • Peer to peer
Rocco and Pip, two raccoons, watching from a row of five cinema seats, with a bucket of popcorn between them Rocco and Pip, two raccoons, watching from a row of five cinema seats, with a bucket of popcorn between them

Reel 1How it works

Three frames to movie night.

  1. Start a room

    Open popcornpals and press Start a room. No sign up and nothing to download. You are the host.

  2. Share six words, a QR code or a link

    Press the big invite button. Your friend types the six words, scans the code or opens the link, and all three carry the same words. Each invite works once, for 10 minutes.

  3. Press play

    Play, pause and seek stay in step on every screen. Anyone can take the remote unless the host locks it, and a friend who joins late lands on the right moment.

Reel 2The ticket

Six words are the ticket.

No account. You share six words, as words, a QR code or a link, and a second set of six proves the right friend came in.

Admit one friend

popcornpals

  1. 1dream
  2. 2foot
  3. 3word
  4. 4divide
  5. 5drastic
  6. 6about
  1. 1velvet
  2. 2orbit
  3. 3lemon
  4. 4harbor
  5. 5pilot
  6. 6cherry

Your friend types these words, scans the QR code, or opens the invite link. A link that opens joins the room at once.

Your friend reads these back to you. You type them, and the door opens.

Roomup to 5

Validonce, 10 min

Link#join=

Example words. Every invite makes new ones. In the link, the words sit after the #, a part browsers never send to any server. They meet on public relays, encrypted with a key made from the words, and three wrong check ins turn the guest away.

Reel 3What you can watch

Four ways to fill the screen.

  1. YouTube videos

    Paste a link. Everyone loads the official embedded player, and play, pause, seek and speed stay in sync.

  2. Your video files

    One person picks the file, everyone watches. It streams from that person's device over the peer connections, so picture quality depends on their upload speed, shared by every guest.

    • Best quality mode. If everyone has the same file, each person opens it on their own device. A quick fingerprint checks the files match, and only sync messages travel.
    • Subtitles. Load an .srt or .vtt file and everyone sees them.
  3. A shared screen that shows only black with a small lock, and Pip shrugging A shared screen that shows only black with a small lock, and Pip shrugging

    Screen share, for anything else

    Share a tab, a window or the whole screen.

    Many streaming services block screen capture of protected video, so your friends would see a black picture. And sharing never replaces a subscription: every viewer always needs their own.

  4. Streaming sites, with the extension

    The optional browser extension keeps each person's own player on a streaming site in step: play, pause and seek. Everyone signs in with their own account and subscription.

    It never captures, records, downloads or re-streams video, and never bypasses copy protection. Some players refuse seeking from outside; then only play and pause sync.

    Get the extension

Reel 4Together

The same couch, in different homes.

  1. Voice chat

    Talk like you are on the same couch. Mute whenever you like. Noise suppression fades fans, hum and keyboard clicks.

  2. Chat with replies

    Reply to a message, react to it, and drop a time like 1:24:07: one click takes everyone to that moment.

  3. Reactions on the screen

    Tap a reaction and it floats up over the picture for everyone.

  4. Camera seats

    Turn on your camera if you want to, and you show up as a small seat under the screen.

  5. Also in the room

    • Who is watching
    • A shared queue
    • Host lock for the controls
    • English and Portuguese
    • Installs like an app
    • Dark, with a light option

Reel 5Private by design

No server of ours in the middle.

Three devices connected straight to each other with encrypted links, and a public relay above them that only passes the encrypted pairing handshake Three devices connected straight to each other with encrypted links, and a public relay above them that only passes the encrypted pairing handshake
  • Peer to peer. Video, voice and chat travel straight between your devices over WebRTC, encrypted with DTLS. There is no server of ours and no account.
  • Relays only see ciphertext. The six words meet on public MQTT relays, and only encrypted handshake data passes there. An invite link keeps the words in the part after the #, which is never sent to a server.
  • Nothing uploaded to a server. A video file streams from the person who picked it, straight to the room.
  • Strict networks. Public STUN servers help devices find each other. Some networks block direct connections; then you can add your own TURN server in the app settings.

OptionalFor streaming sites

The sync extension

Works with the video player on many streaming sites. It only plays, pauses and seeks each person's own player, so everyone needs their own subscription. It never captures, records or re-streams video, and never bypasses copy protection.

Download the extension

Version 0.1.038 KBzip file

SHA-256 72a172486adad897accfd2d91fc5ec08d470ad33128516d6d599dc6a276e09bc

Works on Chromium-based browsers. Firefox requires signed extensions, so it is not supported there yet. It is not in any store: you install it from this file.

Install it once

  1. Step 1

    Unzip the file

    Unzip the download. You get a folder named popcornpals-extension. Keep it where it is: the browser loads the extension from it.

    A downloads folder: the zip file is unzipped into a folder named popcornpals-extension A downloads folder: the zip file is unzipped into a folder named popcornpals-extension

  2. Step 2

    Turn on developer mode

    Open the extensions page of your browser from its menu, and turn on the developer mode switch.

    The extensions page of the browser, with the developer mode switch turned on The extensions page of the browser, with the developer mode switch turned on

  3. Step 3

    Load the unpacked folder

    Choose Load unpacked and select the popcornpals-extension folder you unzipped.

    Load unpacked opens a folder picker, where the popcornpals-extension folder is selected Load unpacked opens a folder picker, where the popcornpals-extension folder is selected

Then, on movie night

On the streaming site tab, the popcornpals button in the toolbar opens a small panel with the button Sync this tab with my room On the streaming site tab, the popcornpals button in the toolbar opens a small panel with the button Sync this tab with my room
  1. Keep your popcornpals room open, and open the video on the streaming site in another tab, signed in to your own account.
  2. Click the popcornpals button in the browser toolbar.
  3. Choose Sync this tab with my room. Everyone in the room does the same on their own device.

IntermissionQuestions

Before the lights go down.

Do my friends need the video file?

No. One person picks the file and everyone watches it, streamed from that person's device. If everyone already has the same file, best quality mode plays each person's own copy and only sync messages travel.

Why do my friends see a black screen when I share some services?

Many streaming services block screen capture of protected video, so the shared picture turns black. popcornpals cannot change that. Use the extension instead: everyone plays the video on the site with their own account and subscription.

How many people can watch together?

Up to 5 people in a room: you and 4 friends.

Is it private?

Video, voice and chat go straight between your devices, encrypted with DTLS. There is no account and no server of ours. The public relays used for the six words only pass encrypted handshake data.

What if we cannot connect?

Some strict networks, often at work or school, block direct connections. Try another network, or add your own TURN server in the app settings so the connection can be relayed through it.

Do I need to install anything?

No. popcornpals runs in the browser, and you can install it as an app if you like. The extension is optional and only needed to sync a streaming site.

The seats are free. Bring popcorn.

Start a room