The SharePlay feature was added with the update that launched in late October. We thought we'd give SharePlay a try to see how it works.
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The first thing you need to do is to start FaceTime. Everyone needs to have a device that is running the latest version of the OS. The update for SharePlay is still in the early stages, but it is coming to the Mac.
You can open any app that supports SharePlay, like Apple Music or Apple TV, if you use a FaceTime call. If you choose a song or a TV show to share, you'll see a prompt to start the SharePlay experience.
Everyone on the call will see a prompt to join SharePlay, and once everyone agrees, the content will be between them. With Apple TV and other apps that include media, participants have control over the way the content is played, so everyone can see what's happening.
SharePlay is designed to lower the volume of what's playing when someone speaks so you don't miss any commentary. Everyone can change the song that's playing with Apple Music.
Each person needs to have access to any SharePlayed content. Users need to be subscribed for Apple TV and Apple Music. If you try to play a movie that you own from the internet, the person on the other end needs to own the movie as well.
One of the best experiences we had was with TikTok. After opening up the app, everyone involved can scroll through TikTok and watch the same videos with one another.
Each person needs to own the app in question for the SharePlay experience. It's not always an ideal experience to listen to music on a call with other people who are not premium subscribers. In situations where everyone on the call doesn't own the same media, the content will play for who owns it, and others can remain on the call to chat.
We couldn't get Disney+ and Hulu to work with SharePlay because we couldn't get them to work in our testing. SharePlay doesn't have support for some popular apps at the moment. There is a list of apps that work with SharePlay.
If you need to help someone with a device issue, or if you want to plan something with multiple people, SharePlay can be used. Group workouts are great for long distance workouts. SharePlay was choppy in 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, you can use SharePlay to watch content on a bigger screen while you wait for a call.
Did you try out SharePlay? Let us know what you think.
