Audio is allegedly coming to WhatsApp’s screen sharing feature

Now that we as a humanity have finally let go of the archaic ways of getting together in person, it’s time for “watch parties” – two or more people play together the same movie (or event, or whatever) and watch it simultaneously at their screens, with one of them broadcasting to the others it via screen sharing.

Soon, the latest software to offer this will be WhatsApp. The most popular messaging app will support audio in its screen sharing feature, which debuted this year. At the moment, participants can share their screen when in a WhatsApp video call, but there’s no audio coming from the application(s), so the change is a welcomed one (via Android Authority).

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

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

The alleged audio support will come in handy in various scenarios – during business calls for presentations, during troubleshooting calls to your parents, and more.

With movies and series, the situation could be a little trickier. Knowing how fierce Netflix has been these last months with the password sharing crackdown, don’t expect that one friend with a Netflix subscription to screen share the latest episode (or movie) on WhatsApp for the rest of you to watch just like that.

For example, Amazon offers its own watch party functionality, but the host and participants all need Prime memberships.

That leaves watch party aficionados with the option to play and share videos that are already stored offline on the device’s storage.