Video playback might not start when Watch2Gether in a browser tab which is currently in the background and not active.
At the core this behaviour is caused by a browser restriction which limits autoplay in background tabs. Under certain circumstances autoplay might work but it’s hard to get this consistent across all platforms integrated in Watch2Gether.
We are currently evaluating different options to improve this. As a workaround you can run Watch2Gether in it’s own window. This window can be put in the background or being overlapped by other windows and autoplay should still work.
To run Watch2Gether in it’s own window, you can either drag and drop the tab from your browser’s tab menu or select “New Window” in your browser’s main menu.
For Firefox users there is another workaround (advanced users only). Type about:config in your browser’s address bar, search for the setting “media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground” and set it to “false”.
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Hi, just wanna note that i use Opera and the problem didnt occur before the update. The workaround doesn’t work either. the videos are playing automatically but i dont hear the sound until i click on the tab or window.
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Thanks for your feedback. It could be that it only works when there is no other window maximized. Annoying - i agree. Will look for other options.
im using the most popular in Russia than FRG or America “Yandex.Browser”, the same problem didnt occur before this updated player.
my comrades are using have the same browsers and they have same problem. Maybe can we roll back to the previous version or smh?
or, you can integrate something to your W2G extension, or, do the individual app?
Workaround works on firefox, thanks!
I know that there is an extension for youtube called “YouTube NonStop” maybe this code can be integrated? Anyway thanks for the great service, its a great website 
Tried this with no other windows maximized. Does not work for me on Chrome…
Workaround does not work on Firefox 93.0
Chiming in to say we have the same issue, workaround seems to work.
We are on the Vivaldi browser.
I have found however that the new played also closes Vivaldi’s Picture in Picture mode when a new video begins.
This issue should be resolved. Please check it out and let me know if it works for you!
Seems to be working for me now.
Nevermind, it seems to be pretty tentative. Sometimes songs move on, other times it gets stuck.
The player not initializing properly and not playing audio while off-focus/off-tab seems fixed in at least chromium. Will test firefox later, but good job!
This seems like a different, old issue that makes it hard to test with certainity-- sometimes the room will get stuck at a video ending, with the player stopped at the end of the video. Is this how it looks like to you?
My guess is that it’s problem with the room/playlist system that sometimes occurs where the player finishes and due to a connection error with one of the users the next video won’t be sent to the player consistently. Having all users in the room refresh seems to fix that, or sometimes it just seems to fix itself.
Edit: Nevermind, a different behavior is inconsistant. It’s the same bug, but sometimes it doesn’t happen, sometimes the video doesn’t initialize, sometimes it simply takes unusually long, and sometimes the video does without audio as seen here. I can’t really tell what’s making each case happen, it’s too arbitrary.
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yeah, its working now on “Yandex.Browser”, thanks
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