Disney recently said that they have over 118 million subscribers — which is incredibly impressive for a streaming service that has only been around for just over 2 years. If you add in the subscribers from ESPN+ and Hulu, the number reaches over 179 million. While subscribers can watch Disney+ on their televisions and laptops, there may be another viewing method that is more popular than both of those — cellphones and tablets.
Subscribers can download the Disney+ app, so they can watch their favorite shows like Loki, The Mandalorian, and Dug Days, whenever they want, wherever they want. And now, those Disney+ subscribers have a really cool feature that they can access with one of the latest Apple updates called SharePlay.
Here is more information on the new feature, per The Verge:
Apple started rolling out its anticipated SharePlay feature to iPhone users with its iOS 15.1 update (and on macOS with the latest Monterey update). SharePlay allows Apple users to sync their playback for supported streaming in FaceTime services so they can watch movies and shows or listen to music together in real-time.
Disney already offers a GroupWatch feature of its own, but SharePlay allows users to FaceTime while doing other things on their Apple devices when a video is playing on their screen. If you’re watching on your iPad, for example, your video will appear as a picture-in-picture tile while you navigate across other apps on your device.
When deciding to use SharePlay with your friends or family, there is one very important thing that you must remember — everyone wanting to utilize SharePlay must have a Disney+ account as well as a compatible Apple device (including iPhone and iPad). It is also important to note that, as with GroupWatch, SharePlay will not support any Disney+ profiles that are kids’ profiles.
SharePlay will work across Disney’s entire catalog, meaning users can watch the newest series and movies as soon as they are released on the streamer, including The Book of Boba Fett and Encanto.