Discord tests out Watch Together, letting you watch YouTube videos with friends

Discord may no longer have Rythm, but soon you'll be able to Watch Together.

Just days after a popular third-party Discord plugin was shut down by YouTube, Discord is taking matters into its own hands.

The chat service, which is quite popular in the gaming community, has started testing out a new feature called Watch Together, which allows Discord users to watch YouTube videos in sync with one another within their servers.

As The Verge points out, Discord previously tested something similar last year before seemingly putting the feature on the back burner.

It appears the end of a third-party plugin sparked the renewed interest from Discord in releasing this feature.

Earlier this month, YouTube's parent company Google sent a cease and desist letter to the owner of a beloved third-party Discord plugin called Rythm. The plugin allowed Discord users to stream audio from YouTube or any other link right into the service's voice chat system.

With Rythm, users could listen to music uploaded on YouTube with their friends on Discord and avoid the usual YouTube ads. It's no surprise that Google eventually had a problem with its use, as this violates the company's terms of service. Even Rythm's founder said they expected it to be shut down eventually.

So, with the shutdown of Rythm and another popular Discord music plugin called Groovy, it seems Discord is attempting to fill the void.

Watch Together does differ from those apps. It's more in-line with Discord's screen-share feature, with the YouTube video playing on the screen instead of just pumping audio through a voice chat.

Also, if you're watching a YouTube video, you will see YouTube ads.

Discord will be rolling out the Watch Together beta to more servers over the next few weeks. The current plan is for Watch Together to be completely rolled out to every Discord user by the end of October.