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Facebook Testing Videos That Auto Play With Sound on Your News Feed

Facebook Testing Videos That Auto-Play With Sound on Your News Feed

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 24 August 2016 15:33 IST

Highlights

Facebook first introduced auto-play in 2013
At that time, auto-play began with no sound from video
However, Facebook is now testing auto-play with video on select users

If auto-play videos (without sound) on Facebook wasn't enough of an annoyance on our minds and a cause of data usage, Facebook is now testing auto-play videos with sound. This means that the feature is rolled out to users, videos will automatically start playing with sound as you casually scroll through your News Feed.

When Facebook first introduced auto-play sometime in 2013, videos started playing in the background when you scrolled over them. However, audio only began when you tapped on the video manually. Now, Facebook is testing auto-play with sound on select News Feeds in Australia.

"We're running a small test in News Feed where people can choose whether they want to watch videos with sound on from the start. For people in this test who do not want sound to play, they can switch it off in Settings or directly on the video itself. This is one of several tests we're running as we work to improve the video experience for people on Facebook," a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable Australia.

Auto-play is great if you watch a lot of videos and have a fast Internet connection with a generous data cap. However, many people are likely to find auto-playing videos annoying, and it can waste data. Auto-play with sound will cause even more discomfort to many users, especially in public places, as their smartphones would just start to emit sounds without warning. If you want to disable auto-play on Facebook follow the steps here, or watch the video below:

Facebook has been pushing video enormously in the recent past, from bringing in 360 degree support to videos, to introducing Facebook Live for users worldwide. The social giant has been trying hard to get brands, celebrities and users to upload videos on Facebook directly, instead of YouTube.

The tech giant has also been launching new improvements to Facebook Live, the recent one being the ability to broadcast with another person sitting in a separate region simultaneously. This feature has been rolled out on to iOS users in select regions, with a verified account, and a Facebook Mentions app.

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