Being forced to spend nigh on every waking hour in your home can be tough, but we should consider ourselves fortunate to live in a time when technology enables us to share group video calls with friends and family across the globe.

Video chat app Houseparty has seen a huge growth in popularity following the widespread implementation of lockdown measures, however, people are learning these ‘house parties’ can throw up a few surprises.

That’s because if you start a group call, but don’t lock the chat then uninvited guests can crash the party, so long as they are connected to one person in the chat.

Given that loads of people have only recently downloaded the app, many users aren’t really au fait with this feature – which, as you can imagine, has resulted in some pretty awkward situations.

Thankfully, people have been kind enough to share their uncomfortable Houseparty encounters on social media.

One person said: “Today whilst having a beer in the bath I was on house party with a friend and her boss literally entered our chat as I was naked and drunk to say ‘HI THERE’ then leave and I’m still computing it.”

Another said: “Yesterday a guy’s ex came into our houseparty chat and locked the room. It was M.A.D”

As well as awkward tales such as those above, social media has also been awash with claims that downloading the Houseparty app had led users to be hacked.

However, Houseparty said there was no evidence to suggest this and has offered a $1,000,000 (£810,750) bounty to the first person who can provide proof the allegations made against the company are part of a ‘paid commercial smear campaign’.