[UX] Sycronize playing video when it is shown in multiple columns

[rugk]

Pitch

When a video is opened in two (or more) tabs, the videos should be synchronized to show the same image for both video elements, as – for the user – they are the same video after all. This should also prevent user errors, where you e.g. interact with the wrong video element.

Could possibly also expanded to audio etc.

An alternative would be to only limit the fullscreen feature to use this "synced mode". The reason for this is obvious when you read my motivation below.
Personally, I'd prefer the full-synced mode for no apparent reason. But maybe I would have to try it practically, to see whether that makes sense… (This is just idea drafting/sketching here.)

Motivation

I've just discovered an "user error" on my side and think this here would be an appropriate usability/UX improvement.

The error was:

• I started a video in the home timeline.
• I clicked on the toot to make it visible on the "column" where it is shown as only one toot.
• Having looked at the video in full screen for a short amount of time and finally closing that again…
• I however, no wanted to reopen the video in full screen.
• To do so, I however, clicked at the right column as it was shown as a single toot there.
• Now I was puzzled for a short amount of time (likely ~10s) why the video was not playing, but I could hear the sound and almost suspected a bad internet connection or so. Actually, I closed the fullscreen and only then I noticed I clicked the wrong video/the "other" video was playing.

I think the cause for this UI misinterpretation was simple: Semantically, the videos are the same. Only syntactically (i.e. for technical reasons) I have to choose the "correct" one to play/pause/make fullscreen.

For videos where a lot of movement happens or the shown image varies a lot, this will likely not happen/it is easy to spot, which video is currently playing, but otherwise, this would be a great idea.
For reference, this was the video I was looking at: https://climatejustice.social/@wsuq/106525780453735212 It's quite static and has the same overall colors in each video frame, so… this happened. 🤷

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If this is done, however, the be fully consistent things like "starring" or boosting should be synchronized too then. At least the counter should refresh/be updated. This is currently not the case.
Though, the mentioned "user errors" (interacting with "wrong" element) of course do not exist for this type of thing, as it e.g. does not matter where you boost a toot. Maybe that is what contributes to the actual problem here, however… (i.e. for some "buttons" it matters, where the toot is positioned to be interacted with)

[ClearlyClaire]

I may be wrong, but as far as I know, it does not seem possible to do that in a way that is efficient, reliable, and accurate.