YouTube Uptime lets users watch videos with friends

Image: Uptime official website

YouTube users who often squirrel away while binging on all sorts of videos can now share the experience with friends through a new app.

The app is called Uptime and has been created by Google’s Area 120 division. It’s currently exclusive to iOS devices and offers more than the standard YouTube app, reports TechCrunch.

Initially spotted by The Verge, the main function of the app is to allow users to share YouTube videos with friends and watch them together in real time without the need to switch to another messaging app.

Area 120 also made it a more fun experience with the “reactions” feature. These are basically emojis that users can post and will appear on the video, similar to Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope. At the same time, users watching the video will have their profile icons float across the screen. They can also post comments. There’s even a “sparkles” feature that makes the video sparkle when tapped in real time.

Uptime is by no means the first of its kind, but what it does offer is a more polished design. It also offers ways of enjoying the app even without friends joining to watch videos immediately.

Since the app is still new, it doesn’t have an address book sync feature yet, nor will there be a lot of people to share videos with. But overtime, the app’s goal of creating a more social and real-time video sharing experience should become apparent.

Uptime is currently in invite-only mode. Just use the invite code “pizza” to get in. Alfred Bayle/JB