Facebook testing feature of viewing videos over a group chat

Facebook is testing a feature called "Watch Videos Together" on Messenger that would enable simultaneous co-viewing of videos over a group chat on different devices.

A Facebook spokesperson said this is an "internal test", TechCrunch reported on Friday.

The code discovered describes Messenger allowing you to "tap to watch together now" and "chat about the same videos at the same time" with chat thread members receiving a notification -- "Everyone in this chat can control the video and see who's watching."

The feature was first spotted by Ananay Arora, the founder of deadline management app "Timebound" and an engineer named Jane Manchun Wong in Messenger's code-base, the report added.

Along with allowing Messenger users to create shared experiences from afar, the "Watch Videos Together" feature would introduce new revenue opportunities for the company, the report said.

Since the News Feed ad revenue growth has slowed down amidst fluctuating user growth and limited ad space, the social media giant has recently been focussing on its subsidiaries like Messenger and photo-messaging app Instagram to increase monetisation.

(With inputs from agencies.)