Translation pending professional review. The Spanish text is the reference version.
Room music
How "listen together" works: which videos can be played, who controls playback, what data is used and what we never do.
Last updated: October 26, 2026
1. Summary
- Anyone in a room can put on a YouTube video. Everyone hears it at the same time, each on their own phone.
- Each phone plays the video with the official YouTube player. Our servers do not play, record or rebroadcast music or video.
- Only the person who put a video on can pause, move or stop it. Each person can lower or mute it only on their own phone, or listen privately with "Only me".
- Nobody signs in to YouTube or Google inside the app, and the app never opens the YouTube app or YouTube Music.
2. YouTube and its terms
This feature uses YouTube API Services. By using it you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service and the YouTube API Services Terms of Service. What YouTube receives from your device is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.
3. How a video is put on
You can paste a YouTube link (watch, youtu.be, shorts, live or embed links) or search, when search is available. If search is not working at a given moment, you can always paste a link.
In the Android and iPhone app you can also tap Explore YouTube: it opens YouTube's mobile website inside the panel, as a guest, to search for and choose a video. It loads only YouTube pages (no sign-in, no YouTube Music, no other websites or apps). From a video you can put it on in the room or play it with "Only me": it then plays in the official player, like any other. If you watch a video on that website, the room's music is muted on your phone only while it plays. YouTube may show its cookie notice there and store cookies in the app, under its Privacy Policy.
Each person can have one source playing at a time: putting on another one replaces the previous one. There is a limit on how many people can have music playing at the same time in each room. The limit is currently 10 per room.
4. What cannot be put on
- Videos whose owner does not allow them to be played outside YouTube.
- Age-restricted videos.
- Videos that YouTube marks as "made for kids".
- Private, deleted or not yet released videos.
5. What is kept in sync
So that everyone hears the same thing at the same moment, the server keeps a small, temporary note: which video was put on, from which second, and whether it is playing or paused. Each phone works out the position of the video from that note and corrects it if it drifts from the others. The note is sent to the room on every change, and it erases itself: 12 hours after the last change, when the room closes or empties, or when the person who put it on leaves the room.
6. Consent and automatic playback
The first time, the app asks whether room music may play on its own on your phone. If you turn it on, the main slot starts on its own with the most recent video, without switching away if you are already listening to something else. If you do not turn it on, the video loads paused and starts when you tap "Listen". You can change this in Settings.
When the player loads, YouTube receives data from your phone, including when it starts on its own. The Privacy policy explains this.
7. Volume and control
- The volume of each source and mute are only yours, and are kept on your phone.
- On iPhone you can only mute, because iOS does not allow changing the volume of a web video from code.
- While music plays, the app may pause other music on your phone, such as Spotify, and lower the sound of some games. Voice is not affected. If another app pauses the video, the app shows "Paused by another app", and this does not pause the video for other people.
- Speakerphone can let the music leak into your microphone. To avoid this, use headphones or mute your microphone. The app will warn you.
8. Player window, screen sharing and floating window
- The player is visible while music plays. It pauses when you leave the room or send the app to the background, except in Android's picture-in-picture floating window.
- While someone in the room is sharing their screen and music is playing, the app protects the video window on Android, so the YouTube video does not appear in the shared screen.
- On Android, two sources can play at the same time; the second one starts with a tap. This feature is not offered on iPhone. On iPhone, the app has no floating window of its own: iOS may offer its own from the YouTube player's full screen, and the app neither starts nor controls it.
9. What we never do
- We never capture, extract, mix, record or rebroadcast YouTube audio or video.
- We do not download videos or play them in the background, except in the floating window.
- We do not block ads or change YouTube's player, except through its official API.
- We do not ask you to sign in to Google or YouTube.
- We do not show our own ads on the music screens.
- Room voice is only each person's microphone, and screen sharing does not transmit the screen's audio. Music is never put through the microphone.
10. Data and retention
| Data | Where it is kept | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Video playing now | Temporary server memory | Up to 12 hours after the last change. Erased when the room closes or empties |
| "Recent" list | Database | At most 30 days, up to 20 entries per person and 200 per room. Erased when a public or friends' room closes, and when you delete your account |
| Video data (title, channel, thumbnail, duration) | Temporary memory | Up to 24 hours. Rejections, up to 1 hour |
| Search results | Temporary memory | Up to 6 hours, without your identity or the search text |
| YouTube cookies and data while exploring | Only on your phone, in the app's web view (we do not see them) | Until you sign out |
| Search text | Not stored | — |
| Audio or video | Never stored | — |
11. Questions
Write to us . See also the Community guidelines, section 4A of the Terms of use and the Privacy policy.