Facebook is about to get a feature that may annoy many users: Videos that play automatically will now have the sound on as well.
The social network added autoplay videos a while ago in an effort to enhance the experience for both users and advertisers. The good thing about that feature is that autoplay videos were on mute, and users would have to tap on the video to watch it with sound.
Soon enough, however, that will change. Autoplay videos will play with sound by default, so users might want to keep the volume low on their mobile device when they're scrolling down their Facebook news feed.
The change was first spotted back in August 2016, when it was still in the testing phase. The trial is now over and Facebook says it received positive feedback during the testing stage, so it has now officially announced that it's ready to start including sound with autoplay videos on the Facebook mobile app for all users.
Facebook Video Efforts
The move is part of Facebook's wider efforts to engage into bigger and higher-quality video content. As videos have become a major part of one's News Feed experience, they also started paying off for Facebook and the company is looking to capitalize on this opportunity.
Facebook launched a dedicated video tab back in December and it's also thinking about buying original video content, which would further boost the popularity of its video tab.
At the same time, the company also wants Facebook users to watch video not only on mobile and desktop, but also on TV. To that extent, it plans to launch Facebook apps for Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV soon.
Facebook Autoplay Videos With Sound
With such efforts to dive deeper into the video space, it doesn't seem all that surprising that Facebook is now adding sound to autoplay videos. While some users may find the feature utterly annoying, there's no denying that videos with sound are more effective.
"With this update, sound fades in and out as you scroll through videos in News Feed, bringing those videos to life," note Alex Li and Dana Sittler, product managers at Facebook.
How To Disable Facebook Autoplay Video Sound
On the bright side, videos will not play automatically with sound if the device is set on silent, and users also have the option of disabling this feature altogether. To turn off sound for autoplay videos, users need to access the app's settings and toggle off the option "Videos in News Feed Start With Sound."
The autoplay with sound feature is rolling out only on mobile at this point, so Facebook videos will not start playing automatically with sound on the desktop version of the social network.
Other Facebook Video Improvements
Facebook also says it added improvements to how vertical videos look on mobile devices, and it has also included the option to keep scrolling while watching a video. For the latter option, the video will simply minimize in the corner of the screen so users can keep watching it even as they scroll to see other posts.
To get a better idea of what Facebook has in mind for improving the video experience, check out the video below.
