Try it out here! https://vidqr.fly.dev/
Listening to music on platforms like Discord with friends is a great way to socialize, or it was until YouTube shut them all down, likely because users were able to listen to music without ads.
Since then Discord has released a new feature called Watch Together, which allows users to watch YouTube videos together in a voice channel. However, it comes with a number of limitations and drawbacks which make it a poor substitute for the old music bots. It also has advertisements which is disorienting if you're listening to calm music then suddenly get blasted with an ad.
Because of this, I decided to make a website which allows a user to host a video queue, which can be accessed by anyone with the link. From there, users can add videos to the queue, control playback, and change the order of the queue. It also comes with the benefit that since the YouTube player is embedded in the website, if the user chooses to use an adblocker (which I can't control... it's not my fault right...?), they won't have to deal with ads.
The website is called vidqr (for video-queuer), and it's super easy to use. Create a room, share the link with your friends, and start watching videos together!
Because the original intent of this project was to replace the old music bots, the host will have to share their screen with the rest of the group. However, I'm planning on adding a feature which allows other users in the room to view their own synced video player, which will allow them to watch the video without having to share their screen.
Aside from using it over video call, you can also use it to watch videos with friends in the same room. You can host the room on a TV or projector, and your phone becomes the remote control; perfect for watching queueing up videos, music or karaoke.
vidqr is built using React and Tailwind CSS on the frontend, and Node.js, Express, and Socket.IO on the backend. It is hosted on a fly.io instance, and is automatically containerized using Docker and deployed using GitHub Actions.