Personal-Website/content/portfolio/watch-together.md

+++
author = "Maik de Kruif"
title = "WatchTogether"
start_date = 2018-08-17
end_date = 2021-01-25
company_name = "Personal"
company_url = "https://maik.dev"
cover = "img/portfolio/watch-together/screenshot.png"
description = "A website to watch a youtube video together with someone who is not directly next to you!"
skills = [
    "Websockets",
    "Socket-IO",
    "NodeJS",
    "React",
    "Real time synchronization",
    "REST API",
]

[source_code]
frontend = "https://github.com/maikka39/WatchTogether"
backend = "https://github.com/maikka39/WatchTogether-Server"
+++

WatchTogether is an online service that lets you watch a video together with your friends without being in the same room!

WatchTogether is an online service that synchronizes video playback across users' web browsers, allowing friends to enjoy videos together virtually. This project challenged me to build both the front-end and back-end. I utilized React to create a user-friendly interface and Node.js with Socket.IO in the back-end to handle the real-time communication and video synchronization.

However, I quickly realized that synchronizing anything between clients on terrible network connections is a real challenge. This project pushed me to find solutions to ensure a smooth viewing experience, even on potato internet connections.

WatchTogether not only provided a fun solution for remote movie nights, but also deepened my knowledge of front-end frameworks like React and back-end technologies like Node.js and Socket.IO.