Facebook Introduces Floating Videos, So You Can Watch And Scroll

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There is one feature on Youku (the Chinese equivalent of YouTube) that has always caught my attention. On Youku, you can scroll down the comments while watching a video, because the video will start floating and follow you as you scroll. I always thought YouTube would have won a lot in terms of user experience by doing something similar.

Well, Facebook has just beaten YouTube to it.

Also Read: Facebook Will Only Charge You For Video Ads After 10 seconds

Without making any official announcement, Facebook has introduced a new button that allows video to be popped out from your Newsfeed, timeline or brand pages, so you can keep watching as you scroll.

#Facebook has introduced a new button that allows video to pop out from your Newsfeed.

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When you click on that button, the video starts floating in the lower left of your screen, and it stays there when you scroll. Moreover, it can be dragged anywhere and you can like or share the video directly from this floating pop up (GIF source: The Next Web.)

In Facebook’s battle for video supremacy, this is a clear win over YouTube. User experience is the big winner here, although someone could argue that brands, and indirectly Facebook ad revenue, will also greatly benefit with more people getting to watch their videos.

In #Facebook’s battle for video supremacy, floating video is a clear win over #YouTube.

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Note that Facebook is apparently rolling out this new feature to all users, but it might take a few days before you get it, so don’t worry.

Scrolling has never been so fun!

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