Netflix is more enjoyable when you can watch surprising scenes from your favorite shows with your best friend. But since the pandemic has plagued us, people are no longer able to visit friends and relatives, and thus watching shows and movies together is now out of question. However, with the ‘Screen Sharing’ feature on Zoom, you can easily share your Netflix screen with friends in real-time and watch it together.

Watching Netflix together on Zoom’s Desktop App

To watch Netflix together on Zoom’s desktop app, start with opening the Netflix app or visit netflix.com in a web browser tab. Then, launch the Zoom app on your computer and start a meeting. On your video screen’s bottom panel, you will find the ‘Share Screen’ button in the center. Click on it.

On clicking the screen share button, a new window will open. Options of all the windows open on your desktop will be available on it to choose from. Select the Netflix app window or the browser tab in order to share it with your fellow meeting participant.

After selecting the Netflix window, make sure to check the boxes against the ‘Share computer sound’ and ‘Optimize screen sharing for Video Clip’ option. Click on the ‘Share’ button after this to start sharing your screen.

Doing this will start sharing Netflix in your Zoom meeting.

At the top of your Netflix screen, you will also have the option to mute your microphone, stop your camera, stop or pause screen sharing, etc on a narrow panel. On clicking upon the ‘More’ button on the panel, you will get the expanded menu with options to chat with other participants while viewing Netflix, record the whole session, and much more. By using the chat option, you can have a complete experience of online co-streaming on Zoom as you can always converse with fellow participants at the same time.

Watching Netflix together on Zoom’s Mobile App

You can watch Netflix together with your friends from your mobile device as well using the Zoom app.

The first thing you need to do is start a meeting on your Zoom mobile app with people you wish to share Netflix with. On the bottom panel of the call screen, you will see the ‘Share’ button at the center. Click on it.

On clicking the Share button, a new pop-up window will appear on your screen. Several options will be listed there among which you can choose to share through this feature. Select ‘Screen’ from that list.

Zoom will then display a notification informing you that it will start capturing everything that will display on your screen from now on. Select ‘Start Now’ to proceed further.

On clicking upon Start now, you will be directed to your phone’s settings option where you will be asked to give permission to Zoom to display over other apps. You will have to turn on the toggle switch on this page which will then let you have Zoom’s controllers on your phone screen at all times. This is useful because, in order to stop screen sharing with your friends at any point, you will not have to go back to the Zoom app all the way.

After this step, you can now go to your Netflix app and start streaming with your friends. You can also see the screen sharing controller bar of Zoom on the screen at all times. You can move it on the screen anywhere so that it doesn’t obstruct your view.

The two options that you can see on Zoom’s screen sharing controllers are named ‘Annotation’ and ‘Stop Share’. On clicking upon stop share, you will end screen sharing with your friends on Zoom at once. However, on clicking upon annotation there will be options to draw and doodle over the screen to point out certain details to your friends. This feature is not beneficial for Netflix but can be of great use upon choosing the ‘Share Whiteboard’ window from the sharing list.

Now you know all that you need to know to watch Netflix with your friends over a Zoom meeting. Enjoy streaming together remotely.