Cabana - Hang Out, Watch Stuff

What is Cabana - Hang Out, Watch Stuff?

Note: This app is no longer available in the App Store or the Google Play Store.

Cabana is a group video chat app, that allows users to watch YouTube videos, share photos and chat in real-time. 

Created by the makers of Tumblr, Cabana is an app geared toward the popular social media platform’s largest demographic: 13 to 18-year olds. 

Free to download and use, Cabana app users pay for the service in the form of ad consumption, with ads appearing at least once in each video they watch.

After downloading the Cabana app, users create their account with both a phone number and Yahoo! email address. They then have the ability to add friends by either username or by phone number (the app asks for access to phone contact lists to create user networks). 

Users must have phone numbers of the people they plan to video chat with and they can really only add people they know in real life.

Up to six people can hang out in a “room”, where they can chat or share YouTube videos and watch together in real time. Viewers may only participate in one room at a time, but can leave rooms and rejoin at a later time. Cabana users have the option of creating a new room for friends to hang out, or joining an existing one. 

They also have the option of setting video chat rooms to public or private; to make a room private, there is an option to “lock” the room, and then the option to invite friends by tapping “Hey!”. 

Once in a room, users may access tools to lock the room, flip their camera, mute their phone, add additional friends and search for videos to share with the group. Any member has the ability to tap “Swap Video” at the top of their screen to search for a new video for the group to watch.