Watch Party

Bring your community together to watch videos in real time. Members create themed watch rooms (movies, talks, gameplay, AMAs, e-sports), invite each other, and react together as the video plays. Every play, pause, and seek action from the host propagates to every viewer instantly. A live chat sidebar runs alongside the player so the conversation flows while you watch.

It's the kind of feature that turns a forum from "place where people post" into "place where people hang out".

What it does
YouTube + Twitch VOD support out of the box. Paste a URL, you're done.
Synchronized playback: the host's play / pause / seek actions are propagated to every viewer in the room.
Live chat sidebar per room with message history.
Viewer presence: who's currently watching, with avatars.
Host controls: only the host drives the playback. They can also end the room when done.
Room listing page: browse all active and past rooms.
Auto-cleanup: idle rooms close themselves after a configurable timeout.
Permissions: who can create rooms, who can chat, etc.
Two delivery modes
XenWatchparty ships with two transport modes that you can switch between in the ACP:

AJAX mode (default, zero setup)
Works immediately out of the box. Chat messages and playback events sync via standard HTTP polling. Latency around 1 to 2 seconds. Perfect for small to medium communities, no third-party services involved.

Pusher mode (real-time WebSocket, optional)
For communities that want sub-100ms delivery, plug in a free Pusher.com account in the ACP. Chat messages and sync events flow through Pusher's WebSocket infrastructure with effectively zero latency. The free Pusher tier supports 100 concurrent connections and 200k messages per day, which covers most forums comfortably.

The implementation falls back gracefully: if Pusher fails to connect for any reason (firewall, network, quota), the room automatically continues working through AJAX polling. No watchparty ever breaks.

Built right
XenForo 2.3+ native integration. No jQuery, vanilla DOM, follows the XF.Element handler pattern.
Private Pusher channels with server-side auth signing. Chat from a private room can't be sniffed by non-viewers.
CSRF protected everywhere. POST-only state mutations.
Lightweight: under 50 KB ZIP, no Composer dependencies, no external PHP libraries to install.
Bilingual ready: every visible string goes through XF phrases.
Settings
All configurable from the Admin CP:

Master enable / disable toggle
Sync interval (1 to 10 seconds, default 2)
Chat rate limit per minute (anti-spam)
Max rooms per user
Max viewers per room
Auto-end idle rooms after N minutes
Transport mode (AJAX or Pusher)
Pusher credentials (App ID, Key, Secret, Cluster) when in Pusher mode
Permissions
Create rooms
Chat in rooms
Always available: join rooms (no permission gate, anyone can watch)
Use cases real communities have asked for
Movie nights with chat reactions in real time
Gameplay watch-alongs for Twitch VODs (let your members react to a streamer's session together)
Live AMAs / interviews when the host wants to play a recorded interview and discuss it
E-sports VOD reviews with the team analyzing match replays
Educational sessions where a creator plays through a tutorial and members ask questions
New game / trailer reveals to capture the reaction moment as a community
Requirements
XenForo 2.3.0 or higher
PHP 8.0 or higher
(Optional) A free Pusher.com account if you want real-time mode