I am trying to watch videos from a different party but as soon as I plug my phone into the gear vr headset it takes me out of what I am watching and forces me to the gear vr home page
How are you playing the video, from the web or from a video file on the phone? If it is a video file on the phone you must start the video from inside the Oculus Video player or the MilkVR player.
See https://support.oculus.com/help/oculus/901894079905459/ for instructions on how to do it for Oculus Video.
