Facebook expands 'Watch Party' feature

Facebook rolled out a feature called "Watch Party" in July that allows users to watch and chat about a video in one spot as if they were sitting together in a digital living room.

Now that tool, which was made available first within Facebook Groups, is expanding to all pages and profiles on the social network.

Watch Party is part of the tech firm's efforts to get users to interact more on the social network rather than just sitting back and consuming content. As Facebook tries to get its users to spend more time watching videos, it also faces stiff competition from other tech firms, including Google-owned YouTube. 

Facebook has acknowledged in the past that social media can dampen a person's mood if they're just scrolling through posts. But a study published this month by the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology found that limiting social media to 30 minutes per day could also improve a person's mental health. 

The company said it's testing a way for Pages and Groups to schedule a Watch Party. Facebook is also rolling out a feature that lets users broadcast a live video within a Watch Party and plans to add threaded comments. 

Since July, there have been more than 12 million Watch Parties in Facebook Groups, according to the tech firm. 

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