Use guests’ phones as speakers (music and movies)
The Android test build includes a way to play one song across multiple phones, with left and right roles for a stereo pair. Real-phone hotspot playback still needs testing. This guide shows the setup and how to report what happens.
Beta Status: in the Android test download from this site (checked on 1.51-tester11, build 61; the feature arrived in 1.39). It is a test build and still being tested. We have tried it on a computer, not yet on real phones over a hotspot. Android versions before 1.39 do not have Play together. For the short version, see Turn every phone into a speaker.
Can guest phones be the left, right and surround speakers for a movie in Beebo?
Yes. Beebo has a Phone speakers feature (Beta). The big screen, a TV or a PC, shows the film. Each guest phone plays one channel of the film's sound: front left, front right, centre, surround left, surround right or bass, and back left and back right for 7.1 films. Guests join by scanning a QR code over your local Wi-Fi, with no app and no account.
Beta Honest status: Beta. Movie surround on phones is in Beebo for Windows. So far it has been tested on one computer with browser windows and in simulation, not yet on real phones over real Wi-Fi. Music on phones is a separate Beta in the Android test build.
Before you start
- The host is an Android phone with the Beebo Android app 1.39 or later (the test build from this site).
- Your music is in your Beebo library. The host phone loads the songs from your Beebo computer, so it needs to reach that computer.
- Guests need a phone, tablet or laptop with a web browser. We have not yet checked it on real phones, so we do not promise it works on every phone or browser.
- Guests stay near the host phone to keep their Wi-Fi signal. About eight guests on one hotspot is what we designed for.
- Only play music you have the right to play. Beebo includes no music.
Step by step
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Queue songs on the host phone
On the host phone (the Android phone with the Beebo app), open Music. Queue an album or some songs, and start one. Songs come from your Beebo computer’s music library, so the phone must be able to reach that computer.
What you’ll see: the normal Music player. When you start Play together later, this phone’s own player pauses, because the host phone stays quiet.
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Start Campsite Mode and pick the Wi-Fi
Open Campsite Mode and tap Invite guests. Choose Start BeeboTV Wi-Fi (on some phones it says Start DIRECT-BeeboTV Wi-Fi), Use my phone’s own hotspot or Everyone’s already on the same Wi-Fi. A hotspot is your phone sharing its own Wi-Fi. Beebo’s own Wi-Fi and the hotspot need no internet for the guests.
What you’ll see: a join code headed “Step 1” and a second code headed “Step 2”. The full walk-through is in the Campsite Mode guide.
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Guests join and open the Music tab
Each guest scans the Step 1 code to join the Wi-Fi. Then they scan the Step 2 code, or type the address shown, and their normal web browser opens your phone’s page. They enter a name and open the Music tab. They install nothing and sign up for nothing.
What you’ll see: on the guest phone, “Waiting for your host” and then “Syncing clocks…”. On the host, each guest appears under Guest phones.
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Each guest taps Tap to enable audio
Phone browsers only allow sound after a tap. Each guest taps Tap to enable audio once. Nobody waits for a guest who has not tapped yet. That guest joins in partway as soon as they tap.
What you’ll see: the guest’s Sync line changes, and the host card shows that phone as ready.
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Tap Play together on the host
On the host’s Music together card, tap Play together. Every phone downloads the song from the host phone over the Wi-Fi and starts at the same moment. A phone that joins late starts partway through.
What you’ll see: “Waiting for guest phones to load the song…” on the host and “Downloading the track…” on the guests. The start waits until the phones that have tapped are ready, or up to about 20 seconds. Then the host shows “Playing” with the time. Pause, Play, the previous and next buttons and Stop apply to every phone.
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Choose All, Left or Right for each phone
Under Guest phones, each phone has All, Left and Right buttons. Set two phones one on each side of the room to Left and Right to make a stereo pair. A Left phone plays only the left side of the song on both of its speakers, and a Right phone only the right side. The change happens without restarting the song.
What you’ll see: on the guest phone, “This phone plays” changes to Everything, Left speaker or Right speaker.
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Fine-tune on each guest phone
Each guest has a Volume slider and a trim under “Sounds late or early?”. Tap −10 ms to play that phone 10 milliseconds (a hundredth of a second) earlier, or +10 ms to play it later, until it sounds right. A phone using a Bluetooth speaker usually needs earlier.
What you’ll see: a Sync line that reads “In sync” (green), “Adjusting…” (amber) or “Out of sync” (red).
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Stop when you are done
Tap Stop on the host’s Music together card to end the music. When you are finished with the session, tap Stop on the Hosting your campsite bar, then Stop again to confirm. If nobody is connected for 15 minutes, Campsite Mode stops by itself. Songs are kept on the host phone only while Campsite Mode runs.
Left, Right and All
| Setting | What that phone plays |
|---|---|
| All (shown as “Everything” on the phone) | The whole song. This is the default. |
| Left | Only the left side of the song, on both of the phone’s speakers. |
| Right | Only the right side of the song, on both of the phone’s speakers. |
| Voice Planned | Groundwork for a later Campfire feature. For now a phone set to Voice plays the same music as everyone else, and the host card has no button for it. |
A left and right pair is a fun party feature. Phones will differ by tens of milliseconds, so it is not a calibrated stereo system.
What the Sync line means
| The phone shows | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Syncing clocks… | The phone is measuring its time difference from the host. Wait a few seconds. |
| Tap to enable audio | The browser needs one tap before it will play sound. |
| Downloading the track… | The song is coming from the host phone over the Wi-Fi. |
| In sync (green) | Estimated error is within about 30 ms. |
| Adjusting… (amber) | Estimated error is up to about 80 ms, and the phone is correcting. |
| Out of sync (red) | Estimated error is above about 80 ms. Move closer, reload, or trim. |
It is an estimate, not a measurement of what you hear. It cannot see delay added by a Bluetooth speaker, which is why the trim buttons exist.
For a movie: phones as surround speakers Beta
This page is about music. Beebo for Windows (0.1.58 and newer) also has a movie version, where a TV or PC browser shows the picture and each phone plays one channel of the sound. It has been tested in simulation and by measurement on one computer, not on real phones. See the movie surround section for what it does and does not do. In short:
Start it on the Beebo PC
On the details page of a film or episode, choose Phone speakers. Or use the Phone speakers button in the web player on a TV or PC browser. You must be signed in and allowed to watch that title.
Guests scan the QR code
Put the QR code on the big screen. Guests scan it with their phone, type a name, tap Join and tap once more to turn on sound. No app, no account and no internet, but the phones must be on your home Wi-Fi.
Press play
The picture leads and the phones follow. Under Layout, choose Surround, Stereo pair or Everyone (music-style). Use the Phones here list (the seating chart) to move a phone to a different speaker position.
If something goes wrong
A guest’s page will not load
Beebo’s own Wi-Fi has no internet, and some phones try to use mobile data instead when a Wi-Fi has none. Have the guest turn mobile data off for a minute and reload. Check they scanned the Step 1 code first. On a shared, hotel or public Wi-Fi, phones often cannot see each other, so use Beebo’s own Wi-Fi or your phone’s hotspot.
The guest page keeps saying Tap to enable audio
Tap it. The browser will not play sound until the page has had a tap, and this is a browser rule, not a Beebo setting. iPhones can ask again after a call or after the phone locks. A phone that has not tapped is not waited for, and joins in progress once it does.
I tapped, but there is no sound
Turn up the phone’s volume and the Volume slider on the page, and check the phone is not on silent (on an iPhone, check the silent switch). Remember the host phone stays quiet on purpose. If the page says “This browser cannot play synced audio”, try Chrome or Safari.
The screen locked and the music stopped
Keep the page open with the screen on. Some phones pause a web page when the screen locks, and we have not tested ways to keep it playing. Open the page again and the phone catches up by itself. In your phone’s settings you can set a longer screen timeout while you use the feature.
The phones are not quite together
Look at the Sync line. Green “In sync” means its estimated error is within about 30 ms. If it says “Adjusting…” or “Out of sync”, move that phone closer to the host, reload the page, and give it a few seconds, because phones re-check their clocks regularly. If it still sounds late or early, use the −10 ms and +10 ms trim. The indicator is an estimate: it cannot see delay added by a speaker.
A phone with a Bluetooth speaker sounds late
Bluetooth adds delay, and browsers often do not report how much. Tap −10 ms on that phone a few times until it lines up by ear. The setting is remembered on that phone.
A phone lost the connection
The page says “Reconnecting to your host…” and rejoins by itself when it is back in range. Keep guests near the host phone, and keep the host phone charged and awake while the session runs.
A song is skipped, or the song takes a while to start
Songs longer than 12 minutes are skipped. Each guest downloads each song from the host phone before it starts, and about eight guests on one hotspot is what we designed for, so a bigger group waits longer. We have not tested large groups on real phones.
I cannot find the Music tab or the Play together button
You need the Beebo Android app 1.39 or later on the host phone. Earlier versions do not have this feature. Guests do not need the app, only a browser.
Safety and privacy notes
- It runs on a local Wi-Fi, not the internet. Guests download songs from the host phone over that Wi-Fi.
- The guest page is plain HTTP on that Wi-Fi. Treat it like a shared room: anyone who can join the Wi-Fi and has the address can open the page. Beebo’s own Wi-Fi is protected by a password, which the join code holds so nobody has to type it.
- Guests can only get the songs in the current queue, not your whole library. The host phone keeps copies of the current and upcoming songs only while Campsite Mode runs.
- Names are whatever people type. Nothing checks who they are.
For what Beebo’s own service handles, see Privacy in plain words.
Quick answers
Can guest phones be the left, right and surround speakers for a movie in Beebo?
Yes. Beebo has a Phone speakers feature (Beta). The big screen, a TV or a PC, shows the film. Each guest phone plays one channel of the film's sound: front left, front right, centre, surround left, surround right or bass, and back left and back right for 7.1 films. Guests join by scanning a QR code over your local Wi-Fi, with no app and no account. Honest status: Beta. Movie surround on phones is in Beebo for Windows. So far it has been tested on one computer with browser windows and in simulation, not yet on real phones over real Wi-Fi. Music on phones is a separate Beta in the Android test build.
Do guests need an app or an account to be a speaker?
No. A guest scans the QR code and opens a page in an ordinary web browser on their phone. They install nothing and sign up for nothing.
Does the phone speakers feature need the internet?
No. It runs over your local Wi-Fi. Your film's sound is cut on your own PC and sent to the phones over that Wi-Fi. Each phone shows its position, such as You are: Front left, and the host can move phones between positions on a seating chart.
Is the phone speakers feature finished?
Not yet. It is Beta. Movie surround on phones is in Beebo for Windows and has so far been tested on a computer with browser windows and in simulation, not yet on real phones over real Wi-Fi. For music, each phone can play Left, Right or All, kept in sync, in the Android test build. That is also Beta.
Related pages
Written for the Beebo Android test build 1.40 (build 41), as of Sep 21, 2026, 4:54 PM Eastern. Status notes on this page were last checked on Oct 5, 2026, 6:54 AM Eastern, against Beebo for Windows 0.1.79 and the Android test build 1.51-tester11 (build 61). The feature described is in that test build and has not been measured on real phones yet. Found something that does not match what you see? Tell us at testers@beeboentertainment.com. It is a plain email, with no form and no sign-up.