[Plugin] Watch Party

[yocker 1247]

Please note i'm not trying to steal from and/or overshadow Oratorian who made an awesome Watch Party program for Emby.
I strongly encourage every one to see it at: 

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Here is my take on a watch party plugin.



The way it works is that you choose a movie, what people to join and how syncing should work.
The plugin makes a STRM file in a library chosen in the settings (i recommend making a separate library for this!!)
User starting that file will be synced together.

There are extra configurations that can be set to customize it more.

There is also an external webpage where users can add more watch parties without having to have admin access to Emby, this can be configured to have a custom password for security reasons.
This webpage needs to be binding correctly in the docker version of Emby.
In Windows version of Emby you might need to run "netsh http add urlacl url=http://*:8097/ user="Everyone"  to give permission in the firewall.
This webpage also has a dedicated chat for each watch party.

How to create watch party:

Choose movie and what library to place the STRM file in:




Set users as master:





And then press create watch party.
The movie should now show in the configured library and when the amount of people configured have joined it will start.

WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!!
This is the first release and should be considered a beta version. It has mainly been tested on Windows because my test server is unavailable atm.
Use at your own risk!!!
Source code will be available later.

Please report any problems and ideas for the plugin either in here or to me in a private message.

Lastly:
I again encourage everyone to also look at the Watch Party solution that Oratorian made!!
It's well made and might fit your needs better.

WatchPartyForEmby.dll

[Brendon 119]

Nice work @yockerPlaying around with this now and initial testing across LAN seems pretty good however one thing is bothering me. Every time a create a watch party it launches a full library scan. Not sure why but that's going to get annoying real fast, if this is to find the .strm files, then I have to suggest setting a default library for watch parties which would make more sense.

 

I am also noticing some serious browser hang time after using the first 3 drop downs, even pops a 'not responding' error in edge on occasion.

[yocker 1247]

1 minute ago, Brendon said:

Nice work @yockerPlaying around with this now and initial testing across LAN seems pretty good however one thing is bothering me. Every time a create a watch party it launches a full library scan. Not sure why but that's going to get annoying real fast, if this is to find the .strm files, then I have to suggest setting a default library for watch parties which would make more sense.

 

I am also noticing some serious browser hang time after using the first 3 drop downs, even pops a 'not responding' error in edge on occasion.

I will look into it.

Many thanks for reporting!  

[Brendon 119]

5 minutes ago, yocker said:

I will look into it.

Many thanks for reporting!  

Just noticed it also launches a full library scan when deleting a watch party mate.

[yocker 1247]

3 hours ago, Brendon said:

Just noticed it also launches a full library scan when deleting a watch party mate.

Yes, i made it do it when changing the files so make sure they updated.
I forgot to change it to only do it to the relevant libraries when i was done.  

[yocker 1247]

5 hours ago, Brendon said:

Just noticed it also launches a full library scan when deleting a watch party mate.

Try this version and see if it's better.
I have added a limit to the number of videos shown with a load more button. This should prevent the slow down.
I have removed all the scanning of libraries as it didn't work as intended as instead relies of Embys own library scanning.
Please note that it might take up to 2 minutes for the files to show up because of this, you can run a manual scan on the library if you want them to show instantly.

WatchPartyForEmby.dll

[Brendon 119]

52 minutes ago, yocker said:

Try this version and see if it's better.
I have added a limit to the number of videos shown with a load more button. This should prevent the slow down.
I have removed all the scanning of libraries as it didn't work as intended as instead relies of Embys own library scanning.
Please note that it might take up to 2 minutes for the files to show up because of this, you can run a manual scan on the library if you want them to show instantly.

WatchPartyForEmby.dll 431 kB · 0 downloads

Cheers mate; I'll test it out as soon as i get a chance.

[oalaptop 2]

Hi, I am trying to use the external server with nginx and encountering a few issues, It seems to not know the password I set and returns a 404 when trying to load parties, also when trying to create a new party using the external server in localhost, it fails to load the libraries although I have made and pasted an api key and reassured the external URL is correct
Regardless, a great plugin and a great idea! Have tested it with a few friends and it worked flawlessly, it's great that this can be done on the apps as well and not only the website.

[yocker 1247]

On 2/15/2026 at 11:53 PM, oalaptop said:

Hi, I am trying to use the external server with nginx and encountering a few issues, It seems to not know the password I set and returns a 404 when trying to load parties, also when trying to create a new party using the external server in localhost, it fails to load the libraries although I have made and pasted an api key and reassured the external URL is correct
Regardless, a great plugin and a great idea! Have tested it with a few friends and it worked flawlessly, it's great that this can be done on the apps as well and not only the website.

Please enable detailed logging in both Emby and the plugin and then send the log here.

[BillOatman 596]

Thanks for this @yocker.  My daughter and her fiancée currently live halfway around the world from each other and they have been manually controlling their own playback when watching movies together (jellyfin didnt work out unless I committed to switch from emby to JF completely).  I'm going to get this going for them.

[yocker 1247]

On 2/15/2026 at 11:53 PM, oalaptop said:

Hi, I am trying to use the external server with nginx and encountering a few issues, It seems to not know the password I set and returns a 404 when trying to load parties, also when trying to create a new party using the external server in localhost, it fails to load the libraries although I have made and pasted an api key and reassured the external URL is correct
Regardless, a great plugin and a great idea! Have tested it with a few friends and it worked flawlessly, it's great that this can be done on the apps as well and not only the website.

Try this version.

For security reasons i made the password a hash code but forgot to set a field for it in the code.
This should fix it.

WatchPartyForEmby.dll

[LongMan 112]

Will this work for a single user on multiple devices? I use a single user for my household but now my children are away but still use that single user

 

[yocker 1247]

38 minutes ago, LongMan said:

Will this work for a single user on multiple devices? I use a single user for my household but now my children are away but still use that single user

 

No, it works by tracking the user ID.
I might be able to make something later but it's low priority and will take some time.

You can make a relatively easy solution by using Home Assistant though.

[LongMan 112]

Ok Thanks

[Neminem 1516]

1 hour ago, LongMan said:

Will this work for a single user on multiple devices?

I don't get this, why not make them a separate account.

Then they will get there own watch status, playlists etc.

And then this plugin could work.

[LongMan 112]

@Neminem
I asked if the plugin would work in this scenario. It doesn't, that's fine.
With to regards to having separate users, that is just the way we have had it for >10 years. When they were young it wasn't necessary to have separate accounts. I have pointed out the limitation to my family and they said leave it as is. Reminds them of their family when they sign it and see what others have been watching. Win some lose some.

Edited 21 hours ago by LongMan

[yocker 1247]

14 hours ago, LongMan said:

@Neminem
I asked if the plugin would work in this scenario. It doesn't, that's fine.
With to regards to having separate users, that is just the way we have had it for >10 years. When they were young it wasn't necessary to have separate accounts. I have pointed out the limitation to my family and they said leave it as is. Reminds them of their family when they sign it and see what others have been watching. Win some lose some.

This might work with single user, though i'm not sure.
You can also set something up rather easily with Home Assistant and Emby integration.  Like a play button that sends a play command to all open Emby instances.