Apple promotes ways of staying connected with new SharePlay feature

By William Gallagher

Apple has announced the apps and services that support its new iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 SharePlay feature, and offered suggestions for how families and friends can use it.

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Apple announced SharePlay at WWDC 2021, then pulled it from release, then brought it back into iOS 15, and iPadOS 15. Now Apple has now revealed just how it can be used.

"SharePlay brings a whole new way to connect, share experiences, and have fun together on FaceTime," Bob Borchers, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said in a statement.

"SharePlay leverages Apple's integration of hardware and software to deliver a magical experience across iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV," he continued, "and works with many Apple services as well as some of the most popular apps in the App Store."

SharePlay allows iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 users to watch films, listen to music, or enjoy sports coverage while at the same time having a FaceTime call with each other.

"In addition to enjoying apps together, users can share their screens to browse the web, look at photos, or help each other out while on a FaceTime call," adds Apple.

The services supporting SharePlay at launch include:

Apple says that this feature will also come to macOS Monterey "later this fall."