How to Host a Happy Hour or Game Night During the Era of Social Distancing

In the era of social distancing, it’s more necessary than ever to socialize. And if you’re like us, maybe you’ve found yourself communicating with your friends more than ever lately, thanks to the internet. The dreaded group chat has now become a lifeline. We’re all suddenly fine with FaceTime.

But should you want to introduce more dynamic ways of interacting with each other, we’ve found some online options that allow you to have a movie night, play games, or participate in happy hour with friends and family — all while keeping your social distance.

Netflix Party App

This app is key to a contactless movie night. Netflix Party is a new platform that allows you to watch Netflix with friends, synching video playbacks and adding group chat to whatever movie or show you want to watch. Only available for Chrome browsers, which most of us should hopefully have by now, all you have to do is install the app, open a video in Netflix, create your “party,” and invite friends to join.

Jackbox Party Games

Jackbox Party Games makes it easy to play and socialize with friends while keeping your social distance. Only one person needs the game for all to play. Just hop on a videoconference service (Zoom or Google Hangouts), start a game on your laptop, and use the screen sharing option so all players can see on the call. What’s nice about the game is that even if you’re playing with people in the same room, you just log in your phone with a code to answer trivia questions, draw pictures, and more.

Have a Digital Happy Hour While Supporting Local

One thing a lot of us are already missing during the era of social distancing is our weekly (or daily) happy hour to catch up with friends at our favorite bars. But, there is still a way to support our local breweries and distilleries while catching up with friends over Skype or FaceTime. Just order your liquor from local distilleries, or craft beer and wine from breweries and wineries. As for bars, this is unfortunately still up in the air on how to help besides, if they offer food as well, consider ordering from their curbside or delivery menu.