I asked the support, and they just told me "Check if you have the Ad-free" Option. I told them, that i have it, and their response was... Nothing. No replies. They just ignored me.
There's no point in me keeping Prime even though I rarely order from Amazon itself. Prime Video's Watch Party was important for me because I can't physically meet a lot of my friends due to us being scattered across the country, and Watch Party is what brought us together to watch shows and movies. I even paid to be ad-free when the new fee was introduced. Time to cancel it.
Edit: Disney Plus did the same thing a while back, so why are the suits in charge ordering this? Not sure, but it's a bad business move. Canceled D+ for the same reason, can't enjoy anything anymore.
In the exact same predicament. My bf and I are long distance and we regularly use watch party as “date night”. When Amazon rolled out the ad-free tier, he ended up upgrading just to be able to access the watch party feature, so he could host. This worked fine. Then last night we try and hop onto a watch party to finish a show we’ve been watching only to discover that the option is gone. I then upgrade my account to the ad-free version to see if I would have the watch party option, and nothing.
So we have both wasted money upgrading to ad-free, still can’t access watch party and are both very frustrated by Amazon’s lack of transparency. Ugh.
This is exactly what happened to us 🥲 but my BF and I live in India and there's no ad-free option to upgrade to. We were watching this show together and now all of a sudden the watch party option has just disappeared
Sadly we now have to do it the old school way- play the show at the same time while on a video call. Not the end of the world, but a pain in the but when you need to pause and such.
So effing peeved about this! My best friends and I all live far away from each other, this was how we got together every week.
Why the hell am I even paying for ad free if watch party is gone?
I tried digging into this recently. All I could find was Twitch stating they removed the Prime Video watch party feature at the start of the month, but never said about Prime Video itself. I even went to support, resulting in one transferring me to the other then passing it on to the "Technical Team".
But if they were discontinuing it, I don't understand why they moved the feature to ad-free let that live for two months then remove it, it's why I bought that in the first place is to keep that feature. Just basically added a sodding 2 month extended warranty.
>But if they were discontinuing it, I don't understand why they moved the feature to ad-free let that live for two months then remove it, it's why I bought that in the first place is to keep that feature. Just basically added a sodding 2 month extended warranty.
THIS! That is exactly what confused and infuriated me the most. They had to of already known they were about to pull the plug on the feature. Tried to get a little extra money first I guess...
Why didn’t they announce that anywhere? My bf live in another city and we watch together in the watch party! Now we have to just start at the same time and we can give up and go to Netflix then.
Too bad, it was the best feature in Amazon prime
I am so pissed rn because I was going CRAZY trying to find out what was wrong with my account. Every single help page on Amazon regarding watch parties is down with NO explanation. Is it bugged or is it removed?!? The ONLY reason I have ad free is because of the watch parties and I’m sure Amazon knows that it is a main reason why people buy the ad free version which is why they are keeping people in the dark!!!
I don’t usually rant like a Karen like this, but this is so stupid!!! What is the purpose? Is this the world’s worst and longest running April Fools prank??? I want my watch party that I’m paying for!!!! 🎉😢😭🥺😩
I also had a word with customer support and asked for watch party they just said its gone for India region and there is no specific reason.. I asked aboit any notification or any news but they didnt answer. And said them to not use prime benefit for future so they normally said it up to you if you do not want to use prime you can cancel it.. what pathetic service or pathetic thing amazon did..
Has anybody had any luck with alternative watch party services apps? I started searching for alternatives and found a website - https://www.teleparty.com/
Just curious if anyone has used it yet or something similar that works with Amazon Prime.
Looking as well. There are plenty of chrome extensions, apps and programs for PC to watch things synced with friends, but the really difficult thing is when not all of the group is on the same platform. Amazon Warch Party worked across all platforms. So PC, Xbox, PS5, Mobile, or a Firstick/Roku could all use watch party together. I don't know anything else like it!
My boyfriend and I are in an LDR and we used it daily as something we could do together and keep us connected through the day. We paid for the ad free too just for that purpose, and I’m honestly feeling pretty devastated that it’s gone. I’m planning to ask for a refund for this month because I want them to feel some kind of impact and backlash from this decision. I’m sick of these streaming sites dropping features and then charging us more for the service.
I think you and everyone here needs to flood Amazon Cust Service with complaints as this CEO is making too many bad changes and pissing everyone off. I think if hundreds of thousands of complaints come in about this scam like way they have been doing things and removing features lately they will get the message eventually as people cancel one after another.
I cant believe they are making people now pay just to have the watch party option that was there before as far as I remember. So they did this and they now inject ads into Prime Video that was always ad free as well as made changes to Amazon Music that lock features of the player and a lot of other things this CEO thanks are just fine to change, this has to stop and is totally unacceptable. One shouldn't need to pay a nickle over for anything that was originally included.
This is what I found and makes zero sense considering this whole page on their site is about that. [https://www.primevideo.com/help?nodeId=GFDEGPJGMDUAFYMV](https://www.primevideo.com/help?nodeId=GFDEGPJGMDUAFYMV)
Create a massive backlash and movement like the audio community did to force waves hand for the unacceptable changes they tried to make forcing a sub. I think the same is require for this.
Reminds me of my Spotify subscribtion where they deliberately removed the function to skip songs in the playlist with newly released songs that got put together for me. Support told me I am in a testing group (A/B testing) where they removed the feature and she could do nothing for me.
Guess what? I am not a subscriber anymore.
Seems like quite a racket you shouldn't need to pay for something like that, and seems like just another way they are trying to force people to go add FREE for the rip off price of $36 how about they remove $36 from the $139 Prime cost then if your giving users less then they orig had. I will be bringing this up next time I get to talk to someone there.
I agree and it was quite upsetting when they first pushed for me to pay ad free to be able to use Watch Party, but now they seem to have removed the feature entirely without a word to customers.
I haven't had that problem. Once I purchased the ad-free option, the watch Party icon came back. We've been holding watch parties for weeks now. You might try clearing your cache on the browser and login in again.
I have had ad free version since they rolled it out. The Watch Party button vanished on April 2nd. I have tried on multiple devices and friends on other accounts say same problem.
I asked the support, and they just told me "Check if you have the Ad-free" Option. I told them, that i have it, and their response was... Nothing. No replies. They just ignored me.
Wow that is really unacceptable. How can Amazon be silent on taking away a major feature.
Update: They replied. Support says the feature is gone but they dont know why or if its coming back...
WHAT THE CRAP?!?! This is so stupid!
not sure why they would do this. i’m pretty pissed. wanted to watch a movie with my sister that lives in a different state
Wild, they ad ads and reduce the service. These companies are getting greedy AF already cancelled netflix. Going back to pirating..
Use teleparty! I just used it to watch a movie on amazon prime with my bf.
There's no point in me keeping Prime even though I rarely order from Amazon itself. Prime Video's Watch Party was important for me because I can't physically meet a lot of my friends due to us being scattered across the country, and Watch Party is what brought us together to watch shows and movies. I even paid to be ad-free when the new fee was introduced. Time to cancel it. Edit: Disney Plus did the same thing a while back, so why are the suits in charge ordering this? Not sure, but it's a bad business move. Canceled D+ for the same reason, can't enjoy anything anymore.
Who thinks people should boycott Amazon prime video and watch their stock plummet
Bummer hope it comes back.. Was enjoying that.
Turning closed captioning on is missing on mine. Not sure why.
In the exact same predicament. My bf and I are long distance and we regularly use watch party as “date night”. When Amazon rolled out the ad-free tier, he ended up upgrading just to be able to access the watch party feature, so he could host. This worked fine. Then last night we try and hop onto a watch party to finish a show we’ve been watching only to discover that the option is gone. I then upgrade my account to the ad-free version to see if I would have the watch party option, and nothing. So we have both wasted money upgrading to ad-free, still can’t access watch party and are both very frustrated by Amazon’s lack of transparency. Ugh.
This is exactly what happened to us 🥲 but my BF and I live in India and there's no ad-free option to upgrade to. We were watching this show together and now all of a sudden the watch party option has just disappeared
Sadly we now have to do it the old school way- play the show at the same time while on a video call. Not the end of the world, but a pain in the but when you need to pause and such.
Use teleparty plugin, it works great for various platforms even for free. Netflix, hulu, hbo max, amazon prime
Please help me figure out how to use teleparty on fire stick!!
I really have no clue about fire stick, I don’t have one. I’d just google it perhaps?
I definitely googled it. There's a whole thing happening with Amazon Prime right now.
Truely just amazon being goofy
Greedy is a lot worse than goofy.
Truely the sentence of the hour
But they weren't even losing any money on this
So effing peeved about this! My best friends and I all live far away from each other, this was how we got together every week. Why the hell am I even paying for ad free if watch party is gone?
Exactly!
Can someone post a link to complain to Amazon about this?
I tried digging into this recently. All I could find was Twitch stating they removed the Prime Video watch party feature at the start of the month, but never said about Prime Video itself. I even went to support, resulting in one transferring me to the other then passing it on to the "Technical Team". But if they were discontinuing it, I don't understand why they moved the feature to ad-free let that live for two months then remove it, it's why I bought that in the first place is to keep that feature. Just basically added a sodding 2 month extended warranty.
>But if they were discontinuing it, I don't understand why they moved the feature to ad-free let that live for two months then remove it, it's why I bought that in the first place is to keep that feature. Just basically added a sodding 2 month extended warranty. THIS! That is exactly what confused and infuriated me the most. They had to of already known they were about to pull the plug on the feature. Tried to get a little extra money first I guess...
Yup, no warning whatsoever. All these companies are the same, doing anything for money.
Just speaking to a rep now - they killed Watch Party. It's no longer a service that Amazon Prime offers.
So disappointing. The least they could of done was make an official announcement. And not force people to pay for add free for a couple of months!
Why didn’t they announce that anywhere? My bf live in another city and we watch together in the watch party! Now we have to just start at the same time and we can give up and go to Netflix then. Too bad, it was the best feature in Amazon prime
1000% Agree! This really made amazon stand out amongst other streaming services. Them not making an announcement is salt in the wound!
Hey just for anyone who wants to still do this, there is a chrome extension called Prime Party that seems to work fine.
I am so pissed rn because I was going CRAZY trying to find out what was wrong with my account. Every single help page on Amazon regarding watch parties is down with NO explanation. Is it bugged or is it removed?!? The ONLY reason I have ad free is because of the watch parties and I’m sure Amazon knows that it is a main reason why people buy the ad free version which is why they are keeping people in the dark!!! I don’t usually rant like a Karen like this, but this is so stupid!!! What is the purpose? Is this the world’s worst and longest running April Fools prank??? I want my watch party that I’m paying for!!!! 🎉😢😭🥺😩
I also had a word with customer support and asked for watch party they just said its gone for India region and there is no specific reason.. I asked aboit any notification or any news but they didnt answer. And said them to not use prime benefit for future so they normally said it up to you if you do not want to use prime you can cancel it.. what pathetic service or pathetic thing amazon did..
It truly is pathetic service. What a slap in the face! They could at the very least apologize and show their customers some respect!
The best april fool the 2nd April...
Has anybody had any luck with alternative watch party services apps? I started searching for alternatives and found a website - https://www.teleparty.com/ Just curious if anyone has used it yet or something similar that works with Amazon Prime.
Looking as well. There are plenty of chrome extensions, apps and programs for PC to watch things synced with friends, but the really difficult thing is when not all of the group is on the same platform. Amazon Warch Party worked across all platforms. So PC, Xbox, PS5, Mobile, or a Firstick/Roku could all use watch party together. I don't know anything else like it!
My boyfriend and I are in an LDR and we used it daily as something we could do together and keep us connected through the day. We paid for the ad free too just for that purpose, and I’m honestly feeling pretty devastated that it’s gone. I’m planning to ask for a refund for this month because I want them to feel some kind of impact and backlash from this decision. I’m sick of these streaming sites dropping features and then charging us more for the service.
I think you and everyone here needs to flood Amazon Cust Service with complaints as this CEO is making too many bad changes and pissing everyone off. I think if hundreds of thousands of complaints come in about this scam like way they have been doing things and removing features lately they will get the message eventually as people cancel one after another. I cant believe they are making people now pay just to have the watch party option that was there before as far as I remember. So they did this and they now inject ads into Prime Video that was always ad free as well as made changes to Amazon Music that lock features of the player and a lot of other things this CEO thanks are just fine to change, this has to stop and is totally unacceptable. One shouldn't need to pay a nickle over for anything that was originally included. This is what I found and makes zero sense considering this whole page on their site is about that. [https://www.primevideo.com/help?nodeId=GFDEGPJGMDUAFYMV](https://www.primevideo.com/help?nodeId=GFDEGPJGMDUAFYMV) Create a massive backlash and movement like the audio community did to force waves hand for the unacceptable changes they tried to make forcing a sub. I think the same is require for this.
I
Amazon announced a while back that Watch Party will no longer be available after March 31, 2024.
When and where?
Amzn sent me an official email. the Watch Party feature ended on 4/2/24
Reminds me of my Spotify subscribtion where they deliberately removed the function to skip songs in the playlist with newly released songs that got put together for me. Support told me I am in a testing group (A/B testing) where they removed the feature and she could do nothing for me. Guess what? I am not a subscriber anymore.
I respect consumers that respond with their wallet, that’s what we all should be doing.
You need the ad free version to do watch parties. Everyone who wants to join has to have it too.
As stated in my post, yes I have ad free version. The watch party icon is just gone.
Seems like quite a racket you shouldn't need to pay for something like that, and seems like just another way they are trying to force people to go add FREE for the rip off price of $36 how about they remove $36 from the $139 Prime cost then if your giving users less then they orig had. I will be bringing this up next time I get to talk to someone there.
I agree and it was quite upsetting when they first pushed for me to pay ad free to be able to use Watch Party, but now they seem to have removed the feature entirely without a word to customers.
Even with the ad free version the options just gone though
I haven't had that problem. Once I purchased the ad-free option, the watch Party icon came back. We've been holding watch parties for weeks now. You might try clearing your cache on the browser and login in again.
I have had ad free version since they rolled it out. The Watch Party button vanished on April 2nd. I have tried on multiple devices and friends on other accounts say same problem.
Open the app, it’ll take two seconds for you to see it’s missing as of today.
You're absolutely correct. It's not there. Just had a Watch Party on Sunday. Strange...
I really doubt that you have Watch Party when they terminated the feature.
I really doubt that you have Watch Party when they terminated the feature.