Disney Plus iPhone users are getting a cool free upgrade

Disney Plus has gone from strength to strength this year – and it's now rolling out a new update to its bundle of Apple apps, which adds support for the company's SharePlay feature. Subscribers can now stream movies and TV shows and movies with friends and family while connected on a FaceTime video call.

The newly-added support for SharePlay means Disney Plus subscribers with the best iPhone, iPad or Apple TV can view content collaboratively with up to a max of 32 other people. The caveat? They, of course, will also need to have a Disney Plus subscription, as well as any compatible Apple device.

We know what you're thinking: Everyone needing to have their own Disney Plus subscription is a bit of a nuisance, especially if you've been happily sharing yours with someone else. Still, Disney Plus’ GroupWatch feature, which it added earlier this year, will remain available to global subscribers as long as your co-viewers are located in the same country. It's worth noting, however, that GroupWatch limits the number of viewers to a maximum of seven or four streams from any single account.

According to The Verge, the Disney Plus SharePlay experience is available globally across the streaming service’s entire content catalog from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and more, including for "upcoming titles like The Book of Boba Fett and Encanto."

Watch movies with friends

The new SharePlay feature is available to those who’ve updated their Apple’s software (that’s: iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, tvOS 15.1, and macOS Monterey 12.1). To use the feature, users need only initiate a FaceTime call, open a Disney Plus video, and it will then notify you to start a SharePlay if you so desire.

Disney Plus is a great streaming service and the addition of SharePlay support is great for the pandemic era where many of us are spending more time indoors, but still want to hang out with friends and watch movies. If you're not sold on Disney Plus as a service, there are of course many other streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to name two. Sky Q set-top boxes and Sky Glass TVs have recently added support for Apple TV Plus, as well, so it's well worth checking out this new feature if you're signed up to Sky's product ecosystem.