5 ms·

Show HN: Volcano | Co-watch YouTube videos just by adding –-- to the URL

48 points by jithinraj 5y ago

Just follow the super easy steps below to try it right away: 1. Open any youtube video and play it in the browser. 2. Edit the youtube.com video URL to you---tube.com (adding three hyphens between "you" and "tube" in the address bar) 3. Enter and Done, Share the URL with others for them to join or live-stream your co-watching stream. (private and visible only to people with the URL you share) Example: Modify https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX2qFMC8cFo to https://www.you---tube.com/watch?v=eX2qFMC8cFo and press enter in the address bar. Voila!

antcas 5y ago
Okay, trying it out: https://www.you---tube.com/watch?v=oLeNW7b_2E0 https://www.you---tube.com/watch?v=oLeNW7b_2E0
- antcas 5y ago
  Pretty cool, do you have any demo URL's or currently popular streams to try out the multi-player experience with?
  - jithinraj 5y ago
    Hi @antcas, Thank you for trying out. Yes, I'm live on the URL you shared above to chat, if you are still around. :) Also, do feel free to check out https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome if you want to skip the above steps and save some keystrokes while creating your co-watch URL.
jithinraj 5y ago
Hi HN, I’m Jithin Raj, co-founder of Volcano together with Sajith Amma (https://vlca.no https://vlca.no). We are building a platform for anyone to go live with drop-in video chats by enabling Youtube, Twitch, & Vimeo co-watch features on top of it. The product is currently WIP. This Youtube hack became popular in our circles and thought of sharing it with the HN community for feedback. This works better on the web and is not fine-tuned for mobile. We're excited to hear any thoughts, insights, questions, encouragement, and concerns in the comments below! Sajith and I will be monitoring the thread to answer any questions. Also, feel free to reach out to us by email at founders@volcano.social Cheers!
- specialist 5y ago
  Hi Jithin. Thank you for sharing! My mom loves Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I've been looking for a "watch party" solution. Of any kind. And reruns are fine (dementia, she won't notice). I just tried Volcano. Hot damn I love funny cat shorts. I'd definitely watch Daily Dose of Internet type content with my mom. Sorry, but I don't get it. It seems like I'm watching by myself? Because video started at beginning. And there's no indication that others are watching too? Also, I need a way to share links with my mom. Sorry, I haven't really thought thru what I'm asking for. My mom is no longer teachable. She currently has an iPhone. I'd buy and setup whatever stack she needs for "watch party" to work with her TV. Both Apple TV and Chromecast have an app ecosystem, right? Sorry again, I don't know anything about this stuff. But I really want ad hoc "watch party" features. Cute YouTube videos would be awesome. Live (or recorded live, a la Tivo) content would be amazing. Even a multiuser TikTok client could be cool. (Which might entice my nieces and nephews to join in.) Please (re)post any and all updates to your product. Thanks.
  - jithinraj 5y ago
    Hi @specialist! Thank you so much for trying it out and your kind words. Super happy to know that you could relate to the product and use it with your mom. There's some god news for you, we are looking at some basic games also to be included as an activity probably to collaborate/hang out with your friends and family. hahaha. Cat videos are low risk videos to put for demo vids on internet, hence the link :P Co-Watch indicators: For participants: Need to click on Go-live button and allow mic & cam permissions to initiate the video hangout on top of the video you are co-watching with. For viewers/audience: The live view count indicates the number of people currently watching the stream without participating / clicking on Go-live' button but is there to just listen to you guys or watch the video. (the live count indicator needs some work though) Please note: When we say audience, the link is always only available with you and only the people whom you share this link with can join the chat or watch it. As of now you may just copy paste the the Volcano URL and share it with mom using your regular medium of chat with here like iMessage/whatsapp/email. This is great feedback. We are working on a mobile solution and will be available on iOS & Android soon along with Apple TV & Chromecast features. Please say hi at founders@volcano.social and we will make sure that you will be in the first list of users when we release it. Awesome! The same can be used for most Youtube, Twitch & Vimeo videos too. To easily to do it, you may use our Chrome plugin (https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome) or the page (https://volcano.live/embed/home https://volcano.live/embed/home) where you create co-watching links by pasting the original video URL. Point noted, let us look into the Tiktok options here and get back to you. Once again, thank you for your valuable feedback. :) Cheers!
bsldld 5y ago
> (private and visible only to people with the URL you share) This is going to be fun! What happens if I am watching a video with my family using this URL. And someone across the world is also watching the same video with his/her family using the same technique. Now we have two families sharing the same video, isn't it?
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Good catch, @bsldld. When it was just two of us experimenting with this, that used to be the case. It's taken care of now. Regardless of how many different sets of people are watching the same youtube video, it would still be a private screen where only people with your family's unique co-watching URL can join or watch it. That way the co-watching experience remains private. It will be a separate private screen for your family and theirs. Thank you for bringing this up and letting me answer this for others too :)
  - dexterhaslem 5y ago
    if i start one up and want to link a friend late to the party, would this make it so they cant join? how does this work
    - jithinraj 5y ago
      Hi @dexterhaslem, Thanks for trying it out. All co-watch URLs are unique and is with only with the host (the one who initiates the co-watch) in the beginning. If you share the URL with your friends, they will be able to join irrespective of how late they are into the party.
      - dexterhaslem 5y ago
        Oh I misunderstood a previous comment then. thanks
        jithinraj 5y ago
thallavajhula 5y ago
Hi Jithin, this looks nice. Good job. Just a word of advice, a lot of scammers typically use techniques like these to market their scams. I get that this is your work and I'd recommend directly sharing vlca.no links instead. Telling users to insert 3 dashes between "you" and "tube", while convenient, can often come off as an attempt at scamming.
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @thallavajhula. Thank you so much for your valuable feedback and kind words. This is aimed at the users who don't want to install a browser plugin. We have a Chrome plugin (https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome) and page at Volcano (https://volcano.live/embed/home https://volcano.live/embed/home) where users can paste the video URL and get the co-watch URLs too. Please feel free to check out and share your feedback. Thank you, once again. :)
- soared 5y ago
  The url hack is common place for legitimate services around YouTube so I think it’s fine. I’ve used two tools that url hack and it’s very very convenient.
  - jithinraj 5y ago
    Hi @soared! Thank you so much for trying it out, glad that you liked it. :)
  - midnitewarrior 5y ago
    Url is a common place to modify behavior, but this is the domain name, something that doesn't get hacked because the domain name conveys trust.
    - jithinraj 5y ago
      Hi @midnitewarrior! Thank you for taking time to check this out. Points raised by you are valid. We are trying to give this as a quick solution for people who don't want to install an app or a browser plugin. Alternatively, https://volcano.live/embed/home https://volcano.live/embed/home is the page where you can insert links to start the Volcano co-watch for Youtube, Twitch & Vimeo videos. https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome is the chrome plugin where you can do all the above just with click.
deeblering4 5y ago
Is it possible to see the youtube video name and/or url that you are watching? Maybe I am missing it, but I didn't see that info when trying it out.
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @deeblering, Thank you for trying it out. The title of the video is loaded at the beginning of the video and disappears as you continue to watch. It appears back whenever you pause the video. Is the title needed always on top of the video somewhere with minimal intrusion? I'm live on this URL now: https://volcano.live/youtube/eX2qFMC8cFo/32968583 https://volcano.live/youtube/eX2qFMC8cFo/32968583. Would love to chat and take feedback. :)
sajithamma 5y ago
Nowadays most of our meetings happen over this URL, in fact, free, unlimited ;)
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Yay! :)
djmips 5y ago
Bad name. Stop co-opting common words for product names.
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @djmips! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's sad to hear that. :( We wrote here the reasons behind the name Volcano: https://volcano.live/blog/volcano-begins/ https://volcano.live/blog/volcano-begins/ Looking forward to make you happy with the product in future if not with the name. :)
vilified 5y ago
I'm using quad9 as the dns resolver and it's blocking you---tube domain as malicious :(
- howolduis 5y ago
  because it is.
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @villified! Sad to hear that. It's quite possible that some service providers may be blocking the domain as they would do to most domains which are close/similar to any popular website. Thank you for attempting. :) Is there anything that we can do to avoid this? Happy to chat and figure out a solution.
  - joombaga 5y ago
    You can contact their support. https://www.quad9.net/support/contact/ https://www.quad9.net/support/contact/
    - jithinraj 5y ago
      Hi @joombaga! That's very kind of you. We have raised a remove request with Quad9 for the domain. Will keep posted here. CC @villified
      - bwoodcock 5y ago
        This is dealt with. The domain is no longer blocked. Thanks for reporting it!
        jithinraj 5y ago
        Thank you so much sharing the update here, @bwoodcock! Please feel free to share any feedback you may have here or write to us at founders@volcano.social
howolduis 5y ago
sounds like a scam
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @howolduis! It isn't. Curious what made you think so! We are just a tiny team of product enthusiasts. Please feel free to share your concerns here and we will be happy to address it.
chang2dawson 5y ago
A great idea, but why do you guys name it Volcano?
ibdf 5y ago
Very neat idea… easy to execute. Running on Firefox my frame rate when down quite significantly when I “go live”. Otherwise it’s looking promising.
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @ibdf! Glad that you liked. Thank you so much for trying it out. :) That's right, resource utilization is generally once the WebRTC connections are initiated as you click on "Go Live". We will work on it in the upcoming releases. Feel free to send a hi to founders@volcano.social and we will keep you posted as we make progress.

48 points by jithinraj 5y ago

antcas 5y ago

Okay, trying it out: https://www.you---tube.com/watch?v=oLeNW7b_2E0 https://www.you---tube.com/watch?v=oLeNW7b_2E0

antcas 5y ago
Pretty cool, do you have any demo URL's or currently popular streams to try out the multi-player experience with?
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @antcas, Thank you for trying out. Yes, I'm live on the URL you shared above to chat, if you are still around. :) Also, do feel free to check out https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome if you want to skip the above steps and save some keystrokes while creating your co-watch URL.

jithinraj 5y ago

Hi HN, I’m Jithin Raj, co-founder of Volcano together with Sajith Amma (https://vlca.no https://vlca.no). We are building a platform for anyone to go live with drop-in video chats by enabling Youtube, Twitch, & Vimeo co-watch features on top of it. The product is currently WIP. This Youtube hack became popular in our circles and thought of sharing it with the HN community for feedback. This works better on the web and is not fine-tuned for mobile. We're excited to hear any thoughts, insights, questions, encouragement, and concerns in the comments below! Sajith and I will be monitoring the thread to answer any questions. Also, feel free to reach out to us by email at founders@volcano.social Cheers!

specialist 5y ago
Hi Jithin. Thank you for sharing! My mom loves Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I've been looking for a "watch party" solution. Of any kind. And reruns are fine (dementia, she won't notice). I just tried Volcano. Hot damn I love funny cat shorts. I'd definitely watch Daily Dose of Internet type content with my mom. Sorry, but I don't get it. It seems like I'm watching by myself? Because video started at beginning. And there's no indication that others are watching too? Also, I need a way to share links with my mom. Sorry, I haven't really thought thru what I'm asking for. My mom is no longer teachable. She currently has an iPhone. I'd buy and setup whatever stack she needs for "watch party" to work with her TV. Both Apple TV and Chromecast have an app ecosystem, right? Sorry again, I don't know anything about this stuff. But I really want ad hoc "watch party" features. Cute YouTube videos would be awesome. Live (or recorded live, a la Tivo) content would be amazing. Even a multiuser TikTok client could be cool. (Which might entice my nieces and nephews to join in.) Please (re)post any and all updates to your product. Thanks.
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @specialist! Thank you so much for trying it out and your kind words. Super happy to know that you could relate to the product and use it with your mom. There's some god news for you, we are looking at some basic games also to be included as an activity probably to collaborate/hang out with your friends and family. hahaha. Cat videos are low risk videos to put for demo vids on internet, hence the link :P Co-Watch indicators: For participants: Need to click on Go-live button and allow mic & cam permissions to initiate the video hangout on top of the video you are co-watching with. For viewers/audience: The live view count indicates the number of people currently watching the stream without participating / clicking on Go-live' button but is there to just listen to you guys or watch the video. (the live count indicator needs some work though) Please note: When we say audience, the link is always only available with you and only the people whom you share this link with can join the chat or watch it. As of now you may just copy paste the the Volcano URL and share it with mom using your regular medium of chat with here like iMessage/whatsapp/email. This is great feedback. We are working on a mobile solution and will be available on iOS & Android soon along with Apple TV & Chromecast features. Please say hi at founders@volcano.social and we will make sure that you will be in the first list of users when we release it. Awesome! The same can be used for most Youtube, Twitch & Vimeo videos too. To easily to do it, you may use our Chrome plugin (https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome) or the page (https://volcano.live/embed/home https://volcano.live/embed/home) where you create co-watching links by pasting the original video URL. Point noted, let us look into the Tiktok options here and get back to you. Once again, thank you for your valuable feedback. :) Cheers!

bsldld 5y ago

> (private and visible only to people with the URL you share) This is going to be fun! What happens if I am watching a video with my family using this URL. And someone across the world is also watching the same video with his/her family using the same technique. Now we have two families sharing the same video, isn't it?

jithinraj 5y ago
Good catch, @bsldld. When it was just two of us experimenting with this, that used to be the case. It's taken care of now. Regardless of how many different sets of people are watching the same youtube video, it would still be a private screen where only people with your family's unique co-watching URL can join or watch it. That way the co-watching experience remains private. It will be a separate private screen for your family and theirs. Thank you for bringing this up and letting me answer this for others too :)
- dexterhaslem 5y ago
  if i start one up and want to link a friend late to the party, would this make it so they cant join? how does this work
  - jithinraj 5y ago
    Hi @dexterhaslem, Thanks for trying it out. All co-watch URLs are unique and is with only with the host (the one who initiates the co-watch) in the beginning. If you share the URL with your friends, they will be able to join irrespective of how late they are into the party.
    - dexterhaslem 5y ago
      Oh I misunderstood a previous comment then. thanks
      - jithinraj 5y ago

thallavajhula 5y ago

Hi Jithin, this looks nice. Good job. Just a word of advice, a lot of scammers typically use techniques like these to market their scams. I get that this is your work and I'd recommend directly sharing vlca.no links instead. Telling users to insert 3 dashes between "you" and "tube", while convenient, can often come off as an attempt at scamming.

jithinraj 5y ago
Hi @thallavajhula. Thank you so much for your valuable feedback and kind words. This is aimed at the users who don't want to install a browser plugin. We have a Chrome plugin (https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome) and page at Volcano (https://volcano.live/embed/home https://volcano.live/embed/home) where users can paste the video URL and get the co-watch URLs too. Please feel free to check out and share your feedback. Thank you, once again. :)
soared 5y ago
The url hack is common place for legitimate services around YouTube so I think it’s fine. I’ve used two tools that url hack and it’s very very convenient.
- jithinraj 5y ago
  Hi @soared! Thank you so much for trying it out, glad that you liked it. :)
- midnitewarrior 5y ago
  Url is a common place to modify behavior, but this is the domain name, something that doesn't get hacked because the domain name conveys trust.
  - jithinraj 5y ago
    Hi @midnitewarrior! Thank you for taking time to check this out. Points raised by you are valid. We are trying to give this as a quick solution for people who don't want to install an app or a browser plugin. Alternatively, https://volcano.live/embed/home https://volcano.live/embed/home is the page where you can insert links to start the Volcano co-watch for Youtube, Twitch & Vimeo videos. https://vlca.no/chrome https://vlca.no/chrome is the chrome plugin where you can do all the above just with click.

deeblering4 5y ago

Is it possible to see the youtube video name and/or url that you are watching? Maybe I am missing it, but I didn't see that info when trying it out.

jithinraj 5y ago
Hi @deeblering, Thank you for trying it out. The title of the video is loaded at the beginning of the video and disappears as you continue to watch. It appears back whenever you pause the video. Is the title needed always on top of the video somewhere with minimal intrusion? I'm live on this URL now: https://volcano.live/youtube/eX2qFMC8cFo/32968583 https://volcano.live/youtube/eX2qFMC8cFo/32968583. Would love to chat and take feedback. :)

sajithamma 5y ago

Nowadays most of our meetings happen over this URL, in fact, free, unlimited ;)

jithinraj 5y ago
Yay! :)

djmips 5y ago

Bad name. Stop co-opting common words for product names.

jithinraj 5y ago
Hi @djmips! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's sad to hear that. :( We wrote here the reasons behind the name Volcano: https://volcano.live/blog/volcano-begins/ https://volcano.live/blog/volcano-begins/ Looking forward to make you happy with the product in future if not with the name. :)

vilified 5y ago

I'm using quad9 as the dns resolver and it's blocking you---tube domain as malicious :(

howolduis 5y ago
because it is.
jithinraj 5y ago
Hi @villified! Sad to hear that. It's quite possible that some service providers may be blocking the domain as they would do to most domains which are close/similar to any popular website. Thank you for attempting. :) Is there anything that we can do to avoid this? Happy to chat and figure out a solution.
- joombaga 5y ago
  You can contact their support. https://www.quad9.net/support/contact/ https://www.quad9.net/support/contact/
  - jithinraj 5y ago
    Hi @joombaga! That's very kind of you. We have raised a remove request with Quad9 for the domain. Will keep posted here. CC @villified
    - bwoodcock 5y ago
      This is dealt with. The domain is no longer blocked. Thanks for reporting it!
      - jithinraj 5y ago
        Thank you so much sharing the update here, @bwoodcock! Please feel free to share any feedback you may have here or write to us at founders@volcano.social

howolduis 5y ago

sounds like a scam

jithinraj 5y ago
Hi @howolduis! It isn't. Curious what made you think so! We are just a tiny team of product enthusiasts. Please feel free to share your concerns here and we will be happy to address it.

chang2dawson 5y ago

A great idea, but why do you guys name it Volcano?

ibdf 5y ago

Very neat idea… easy to execute. Running on Firefox my frame rate when down quite significantly when I “go live”. Otherwise it’s looking promising.

jithinraj 5y ago
Hi @ibdf! Glad that you liked. Thank you so much for trying it out. :) That's right, resource utilization is generally once the WebRTC connections are initiated as you click on "Go Live". We will work on it in the upcoming releases. Feel free to send a hi to founders@volcano.social and we will keep you posted as we make progress.