Audio is allegedly coming to WhatsApp’s screen sharing feature

Now that we, as humanity, have finally abandoned the archaic methods of gathering in person, it's time for “watch parties”: two or more people play the same movie (or event, or whatever) together and the watch simultaneously at home. screens, with one of them broadcasting it to the others via screen sharing. Soon, the last software to offer this will be WhatsApp. The most popular messaging app will support audio in its screen sharing feature, launching this year. At the moment, participants can share their screen during a WhatsApp video call, but no audio comes from the app(s), so this change is welcome (via Android Authority).

The possibility of audio support for WhatsApp's screen sharing feature is spotted in an APK teardown that reveals a string of code, confirming that audio is indeed coming. The line says: “New: Listen to video and music together. When you share a screen, the audio you listen to on your device will also be shared with the people in your call.”

This line was found in version 2.23.25.20 of the WhatsApp beta app for Android.

The so-called audio support will be useful in various scenarios: during business calls for presentations, during troubleshooting calls to your parents, and more.

With films and series, the situation could be a little more delicate. Knowing how fierce Netflix has been in recent months with cracking down on password sharing, don't expect a friend with a Netflix subscription to share the latest episode (or movie) on WhatsApp for the rest of them to share. 'am you look at him like that.

For example, Amazon offers its own watch party feature, but the host and attendees all need a Prime membership.

This leaves watch party enthusiasts the ability to play and share videos already stored offline on the device's storage.