How do I invite friends to a Mzelo watch party?

Share the room link from your browser's address bar. The format is https://mzelo.com/app/rooms/ . Friends can click the link or paste the room code into the lobby's join-by-code box.

How do I create a Mzelo room?

On the web app, click the plus (+) button in the top-left of the lobby. On the Android app, tap the TV icon in the bottom tab and then the large plus (+) button at the bottom right.

Can we watch movies, shows, and anime together?

Yes. After creating a room, use YouTube Player, Virtual Browser, or Web Player. On the web app you can also use Screen Sharing and Local Media Sharing.

How do I make my Mzelo room private?

Rooms can be set to private in Room Settings, which hides them from the public lobby. You can also lock the room so only users with the King role can join; promote your close friends to King first so they can rejoin if needed.

Can we video chat and voice chat while watching?

Yes. Everyone can turn on their microphone and camera. A blue ring appears around speaking users, and camera feeds replace avatars in the user list for participants who share video.

Yes. Guests can join quickly without signing up, and core watch party features (YouTube sync, web player, screen share, local media share, text/voice/video chat) are free. The virtual browser has a free tier with 3-hour sessions and an optional premium tier for longer unlimited sessions with state saving.

Does Mzelo work on mobile?

Yes. Mzelo runs in any modern browser on mobile at mzelo.com/app, and there is a native Android app on the Google Play Store. Web is recommended for the best experience, especially for starting local media or screen share streams.

Home › Guides › How to watch movies together online

How to Watch Movies Together Online — Complete Guide

This is the full guide to hosting a watch party with Mzelo. Create a free room, send one invite link, and watch movies, YouTube, anime, or any video together in sync — with chat, voice, and video in the same room.

Start Free Watch Party Watch Movies Together

On this page

Quick start in 5 steps
Creating a room
Inviting friends
Ways to watch together
Voice, video, and chat
Private watch parties
Roles and controls
Theatre modes and layout
Decor mode
Games you can play together
Troubleshooting
FAQ

Quick start: host a watch party in 5 steps

Open Mzelo. Go to mzelo.com/app on any browser (Chrome or another Chromium-based browser is recommended). You can use it as a guest or sign up for a free account.
Create a room. In the lobby, click the plus (+) button (top-left on the web app). On the Android app, tap the TV icon then the big plus button.
Copy the invite link. The URL in your address bar looks like https://mzelo.com/app/rooms/<room_code>. Send it to friends; they can open it directly or paste the room code into the lobby's "Join by code" box.
Pick a watch mode. Choose YouTube Player, Web Player, Screen Share, Local Media Share, or Virtual Browser depending on what you want to watch.
Hit play. Playback stays in sync for everyone. Turn on your mic/camera or just use text and emoji reactions.

Creating a room

A Mzelo room is a persistent space — it doesn't expire, so you can reuse the same room for every movie night. When you create one, you can set:

Custom room URL title (optional). Leave blank for an auto-generated code, or set something memorable like moon. The room then lives at https://mzelo.com/app/rooms/moon.
Room name and description. These show up in the public lobby (if public) and in the "Your Rooms" list for everyone who has visited. If you're playing a YouTube or web player video, the description is temporarily replaced by what's currently playing.
Room profile picture. A simple way to give a recurring group its own identity.

You can edit all of these later from the room profile button inside the room.

Inviting friends

Every room has a shareable URL of the form https://mzelo.com/app/rooms/<room_code>. The last segment is the room code. There are three ways to invite:

Direct link. Paste the URL into your chat, DM, or Discord server. Anyone who clicks it lands straight in the room — no signup required.
Room code. The lobby has a "Join by code" input. Handy for Android users, where links aren't as convenient.
Public lobby. If your room is set to public, it appears in the public rooms list where strangers can discover it. Use this for community events or public movie nights.

Tip: Treat your room link like a password for private watch parties. If someone joins before you set it to private, they will keep it in their "Your Rooms" list and can rejoin later unless the room is locked.

Ways to watch together

Mzelo supports five watch modes so you can handle almost any content source:

1) YouTube Player

A synchronized YouTube player that loads the real YouTube player on each device, so quality and subtitle controls work as expected. You can:

Search YouTube directly inside the room or paste a video link.
Build a shared queue — anyone with the right role can add videos and they autoplay in order.
Like videos to save them to a favorites playlist.
Import public or unlisted playlists and play through them with full autoplay support.
Use the history section to replay recent videos.

This is the easiest mode for watching YouTube together, music nights, or reaction sessions.

2) Screen Share

Share your screen with or without audio. Audio capture during screen share works in Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Opera). Firefox and Safari don't capture audio during screen share. The streamer needs a solid upload connection, so pick whoever has the best internet.

3) Web Player

The web player plays any direct video URL — MP4, M3U8 streams, live streams, and more. Paste a link and go.

Using the web player to watch movies with friends (desktop):

Install the M3U8 Sniffer — TV Finder Chrome extension.
Open the site where the movie is hosted and press play. The extension pops up with a copyable link.
Paste that link into the web player in your Mzelo room.

On the Android app, a built-in browser does this automatically — just play the video in-app for a moment and it will detect the streamable links for you.

Prefixes: By default the web player streams through a relay server. For direct streaming (when the source allows it), prepend pure: to the URL (e.g. pure:https://x.com/x.m3u8). For live streams, prepend live: so the player handles them correctly (e.g. live:https://x.com/x.m3u8).

4) Local Media Share

Stream a video file directly from your device to everyone in the room, with optional subtitle files. Only the web app can start a local media stream, but both web and Android viewers can watch it. Great for private content, personal recordings, or downloaded files.

5) Virtual Browser

A shared cloud browser that everyone in the room can see and that authorized users can remotely control. Unlike screen share, the stream isn't tied to your computer, so your internet connection doesn't affect quality. Free sessions last up to 3 hours; premium sessions have no time limit and support state saving (keep logins, resume where you left off). It supports extensions and a built-in VPN for changing regions when sites buffer.

Learn more on the virtual browser watch party page.

Which mode should I use?

If you want to watch…	Best mode
YouTube videos, music videos, reaction content	YouTube Player
A movie or show from a streaming site	Virtual Browser or Web Player
Anime on sites you already use	Web Player (with the M3U8 extension) or Virtual Browser
Something on your computer only you have access to	Screen Share or Local Media Share
A live stream URL	Web Player with `live:` prefix
Downloaded MP4 / MKV file	Local Media Share

Voice, video, and chat

Mic and camera are off by default. Everyone controls their own. When someone speaks, a blue ring appears around their avatar; enabled cameras replace avatars with the live video feed in the user list.

Microphone / camera selection. If you have multiple input devices, choose which one to use in Room Settings.
Text chat. Regular messages, animated emojis, GIFs.
Flying emojis. Tap an emoji and it animates across everyone's screen — perfect for reactions during a scary scene or a movie plot twist.
Image and file sharing. Share images via upload, direct link, or clipboard paste. Files share via upload. Peer-to-peer file sending is also available. Guest accounts can't share files; registered accounts can.

Private watch parties

If your movie night is invite-only, here's the recommended setup:

Create the room.
In Room Settings, set it to Private. This hides it from the public lobby.
Optionally enable Deny Guests so only registered users can join.
Once everyone you want is inside, promote your trusted friends to the King role and enable Lock. Locked rooms only allow Kings to join, which is the strongest access control.

Why promote to King first? Once locked, only Kings can rejoin. So if a trusted friend accidentally disconnects, they can only come back if they were already a King before you locked the room.

Roles and controls

Every user in a room has a role. In order of authority: King > Queen > Bishop > Knight > Pawn. The room creator is the Owner — effectively a higher-ranked King.

Role	What they can do
Owner	Full control, including public/private switch, clearing bans, demoting other Kings, unbanning individuals.
King	Moderation (kick, ban, hush), role changes, virtual browser on/off, all watch modes. Cannot touch the Owner's special powers.
Queen	Controls most media (VB, YouTube, screenshare, web player, local share, games). Can use peer-to-peer file sending. Cannot kick/ban/promote users.
Bishop	Knight powers plus adding videos to the YouTube queue.
Knight	Mic, camera, image and file sharing. No media control.
Pawn	Chat, GIFs, emojis, and flying emojis only. No mic or camera.

To change someone's role (or hush, kick, ban, ignore their chat or mic/cam), click their profile picture in the user list. Kings and the Owner can ban users by both username and IP, so registered accounts can't just switch IPs to rejoin.

Theatre modes and layout

Mzelo has multiple theatre modes so the room can match what you're watching:

Mode 1: Hides chat and sidebar. Only the user list and video stay visible.
Mode 2: Hides the sidebar. Everything else stays.
Mode 3: Hides sidebar and user list; user list is overlaid on the video.
Mode 4: Hides sidebar; chat and user list overlay the video at full size.
Movie Night Mode: Synchronized for the whole room. Enlarges the video, compacts the user list, hides the sidebar. Enable it once and everyone gets the cinematic view.

You can also resize the chat by dragging its boundary, toggle the chat entirely, and switch between circle and square user-list items to focus on camera feeds.

Decor mode (decoratable rooms)

Mzelo rooms can be decorated. Enable Decor Mode in Room Settings to personalize the visual space. Decor is visible on desktop web; mobile and the Android app see the standard room layout. This makes recurring hangouts feel like your group's own place.

See the dedicated decoratable watch party rooms page for more.

Games you can play together

Between episodes or when nothing's playing, Mzelo has built-in group games:

Chess — two-player; the rest of the room watches live.
Draw & Guess — everyone in the room joins automatically as they arrive.

You can also screen share a game from another app, or use the virtual browser for turn-based browser games.

Troubleshooting common issues

Audio isn't working in screen share

Screen share audio is only captured in Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Opera). Switch to one of those, or use the virtual browser / web player instead.

The streaming site buffers inside the virtual browser

Enable the virtual browser's built-in VPN to change region. If your site blocks the region it's launched in, switching often fixes playback.

My friend can't see old messages

Check the "Persist chat" setting in Room Settings. When disabled, users who join or reload can only see new messages from that point on. Re-enabling restores access to older messages.

Someone keeps creating new guest accounts to rejoin after being banned

Combine approaches: ban them, enable Deny Guests, and consider locking the room. For extreme cases, recreate the room with a new code and share it only with trusted people.

Frequently asked questions

How do I invite friends to a room?

Share the URL from your address bar, e.g. https://mzelo.com/app/rooms/<room_code>. On Android, share the room code from the create-room screen.

What platforms is Mzelo available on?

Web at mzelo.com on any device or browser, plus a native Android app on Google Play.

How do I make my room private?

Rooms are public by default. In Room Settings, set Public off. Combine with Lock and promote trusted friends to King for the strongest privacy.

Can I video chat and audio chat while watching?

Yes. Enable your mic and/or camera whenever you want.

Can I decorate my room?

Yes — enable Decor Mode in Room Settings. Desktop web shows decor; other platforms see the standard room.

Will my room be deleted if I don't use it for a while?

No. Rooms never expire. You can reuse them forever, or create multiple rooms for different purposes.

Keep exploring

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