With Co-Watching, you can now scroll Instagram with friends

As a measure to ensure connectivity in lockdown, Instagram has launched a new media sharing feature called Co-Watching.

Co-Watching has been launched by Instagram as a part of their efforts to let people feel a sense of connectivity despite the global COVID-19 lockdowns. It will allow users to view Instagram posts together with friends over video chat. It is a step up to regular video chats where users don't have to make the video call screen small to be able to scroll through Instagram. Plus, the view can be shared among friends.

Using the Co-Watching feature, users on the call will be able to co-view saved, liked and suggested photos/videos by tapping the photo icon in the bottom left corner in an ongoing video chat.

In April last year, Reverse Engineer Jane Manchun Wong had discovered and talked about the feature on Twitter. "I can't wait to co-watch videos in dog face with friends with Instagram," she had written back then.

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Other COVID-19 related updates on Instagram include education resources in search, rolling out stickers to promote accurate information, removal of non-credible accounts about the virus, creating a shared story to help those practising social distancing to connect with others using the 'Stay Home' sticker. The idea is to help people feel less along despite the physical realities and circumstances around them.