SharePlay will soon be part of iOS 15 FaceTime – here’s how you can use this feature
Share Play comes with FaceTime, which means you’ll soon be able to refresh your video calls by watching movies and programs with other people on your phone, listening to the same music or sharing your screen. But before you can enjoy that shared experience on FaceTime, you will need to know how it works.
Based on Apple’s current software beta, where SharePlay has been around for a while, the process of using SharePlay on FaceTime is very simple, though it does take some getting used to at first. Using the beta of iOS 15.1 as our guide, we can show you how SharePlay should work and answer any questions you may have about the new feature.
Why is SharePlay launching now?
Apple previewed SharePlay during the keynote address of the Global Developers Conference in June, when the feature was unveiled as part of software updates for Macs, iPhones and iPads. However, in the summer, Apple removed SharePlay from its beta, announcing that the feature will come later in the fall. Most likely, Apple wanted to spend more time updating and it wanted more release time to keep up with all those software updates available on all its different devices.
IOS 15 and iPadOS 15 were released in September, and today (Oct. 25), MacOS 12 Monterey joins those updates. With SharePlay already upgraded to iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1 public betas, that means the release of it is imminent, with full updates for iPad and iPhone or downloading simultaneously with macOS 12 Monterey or coming later next week or of course. However, we expect the updates that bring SharePlay to more people to appear soon.
What can I use SharePlay with?
In public beta, we were only able to use it to share content from Apple TV Plus and Apple Music. However, Apple said third-party streaming services will be able to add SharePlay support. Services and apps specially released by Apple during WWDC preview include Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Plus, Paramount Plus, HBO Max, NBA app, Pluto TV, TikTok, Twitch, MasterClass and Zillow. You may notice that Netflix is not in that group, but that does not mean that the streaming service may add to that feature over time.
External company support was not available during its beta testing; while I was trying to share Bunheads on Hulu with other people on the FaceTime session, it didn’t take long. We expect many apps committed to supporting it to receive updates when the feature is live, however.
Oh, one more thing about it compatibility – people in your FaceTime chat will need the compatible app to download and subscribe to any live streaming service you have joined in SharePlay. If you are trying to share movies and TV shows purchased from the Apple store, each FaceTime participant will need to purchase the title as well. (At least, that’s how it works in beta.)
How to use SharePlay on iOS 15 FaceTime
Here’s how we were able to use SharePlay on iOS 15 FaceTime based on the public beta of iOS 15.1. We will review these step-by-step instructions in case anything changes when the full version of iOS 15.1 supported by SharePlay on FaceTime arrives.
- Introduce FaceTime.
- Touch the new FaceTime to start a new call.
- Add contact details of the people you are chatting with and press the green FaceTime button. Your conversation will begin.
- Go and launch the app you want to use with SharePlay. In this case, we will select the Apple TV app.
- Find the program you want to share and click Play. In the next pop-up menu, click SharePlay to start a movie, TV show or play with other participants. (Start Only Start There will be content playing on your device only, which is disrespectful, really.)
At this point, SharePlay works with its magic, syncing play so everyone can see the same thing at once. The feature also uses autoducking to discard the sound in play when someone on your phone starts talking. Anyone on the phone can control playback, stop movie, show or song.
In the upper left corner you may notice some controls. From right to left, these are buttons to enhance your full-screen view, photo-by-image jumps if you need to go to another app, and X to close your SharePlay session.
When you tap X, you’ll have the option to terminate SharePlay for everyone or keep it to yourself, allowing playback to continue on the phone.
