The ESPN app has been updated with support for Apple’s SharePlay feature, which lets you watch videos over FaceTime together with family and friends. The feature is particularly well suited for live sports, which the ESPN app (by virtue of offering built-in access to Disney’s ESPN Plus streaming service) offers a fairly considerable amount of.
Once updated, users will be able to watch ESPN Plus streams, along with original ESPN video content in the app and “TV Everywhere” content within the app that users have authenticated with an additional login. As is the case with most SharePlay content, everyone that’s participating in a shared stream has to have access to the service in question — so if you’re the only one with an ESPN Plus login, you won’t be able to watch the game through SharePlay with your friends.
Right now, only the iOS and iPad versions of the ESPN app are getting SharePlay support, with the company promising that Apple TV users will get a similar update later this month.
Disney’s rollout of SharePlay support has been a gradual one since the feature launched last October: the company added support for Disney Plus in December, shortly after the feature debuted, compared to the nearly five months it’s taken for ESPN. Meanwhile, Hulu — Disney’s third major streaming service — still doesn’t offer SharePlay support.