Facebook’s iOS and Android app recently got updated and as always, there comes a new much-needed option with it. The new app includes a feature that will automatically play native videos when scrolling through your News Feed. It is said that Facebook has been testing this ‘autoplay’ option for a few months, and behold, finally it’s here.
Autoplay a problem for limited data plans
No doubt many of you might find this videos autoplaying itself as distracting, but the relief is that the videos autoplay with the sound off. However, if you’re on a cellular network then streaming videos can consume a good amount of data, and can dig a hole in your pocket. So what can we do to disable video autoplay on Facebook?
Fortunately, there’s an option to disable autoplay, but only when you’re connected via cellular network.
If you’re on iOS device, then go to Settings > Facebook > Settings. Under the Video section, enable “Auto-play on WiFi only.”
This means that video will autoplay only when you’re connected to WiFi, and not on a cellular network.
If you’re on Android, then open Settings from the Facebook app, and then check “Auto-play videos on WiFi only.”
For now, that’s all you can do. Will Facebook provide an option to completely disable video autoplay? At the moment, no one knows. The one thing we all hope to avoid is Facebook displaying video ads on the News Feed, which would surely be distracting as well as annoying.
