If you are using Houseparty for fun with friends, you need to know these tips and tricks

With hundreds of millions locked inside their homes, the novel coronavirus has laid waste to not only businesses but also thousands of parties and plans that now remain indefinitely postponed in its wake.

Yet, many across the globe have found a safe way of keeping the parties going on, that too while maintaining the strict code of social distancing. Houseparty, a video conferencing app, has become a rage on both Google Play and Apple's App Store. It's free-to-download, and unlike other video conferencing apps, it also gives users the ability to chat and play games with their friends -- and that too in a very casual way.

As such, in the times of Covid-19, the app has been adopted by many as their means to escape other established platforms such as WhatsApp, Skype, and Duo -- applications that are increasingly being used for productivity and work-related purposes.

Here are a few tips and tricks for those trying to get up to speed to the rules of Houseparty.

Can be installed on computers

While the platform is essential for smartphones, with the majority of the users accessing Houseparty through Android and iOS devices, it can also be accessed through computers by installing the platform's Chrome Extension.

After this, users will just need to either sign up or log in, with their email and phone number to get started.

Starting a Houseparty

Well, that's an easy one really. After you're done adding a few friends to the app, you can then go ahead and start a party with them using the app. For this, head to the home screen

From there, swipe up and you will see a list of friends who are available on the app to party. From there, you can either join an existing room to party with your friends -- and their friends who are already in the party -- or you can create a party yourself by calling a friend and then sending requests to others to join your party.

Locking a room in Houseparty

One of the most important tricks to learn in Houseparty is to lock the room when you don't want others joining in on the fun. As is the platform's nature, any of your friends can join your party without an invitation.

In fact, they are given notifications by the app to sneak into your room to join you and your friends who are already engaged in a party. However, that's only when you have left the room unlocked.

Users can simply close off their parties to unwanted friends by locking the room they are in at the moment. This can be done by simply hitting the padlock at the bottom of the screen. However, if you want this to be your default setting, there is also the option of automatically locking rooms by turning on the privacy mode on the settings page.

Turn off notifications

While the Houseparty is fun in general, it can be a bit irritating at times because of the constant notifications that it sends you. So if you are a casual user, you can head over to the Houseparty home screen, tap the top-left smiley face, and from there click on manage notifications.

Here, you can choose to stop sending and receiving all notifications. Once this is activated, you will neither receive, nor send any notification to other friends when you log into Houseparty.