Facebook introduced several video updates earlier this year. These are now coming to fruition.
Facebook wants to become a big player in video, and while it’s wish isn’t exactly coming true just yet, the company is doing its best to put video in the forefront of its efforts. In this vein, it announced several important changes to its video offerings in February – autoplay with sound being the most obvious. Now, autoplay with sound is rolling out to all.
Advertisers might love the idea, and Facebook itself has had lots of positive feedback about it, but it remains one of the least user-friendly forms of content – not to mention advertising. And that’s why sound will fade in and out as a user scrolls. It’s also why Facebook is notifying users with a message explaining,
[quote]We’re always working to make Facebook a better place to watch videos. That’s why videos now play with sound on automatically. Use the volume icon on any video to make the sound right for you.[/quote]
Users can also switch sound off by going to sound in the account settings, from the menu button and toggle “News Feed Start With Sound.” This option is available both on iOS and Android.
Facebook is also adding a “watch-and-scroll” feature that makes a video follow a user as they scroll. The same is available in YouTube’s mobile apps on both iOS and Android. Finally, Facebook is also announcing a new Apple TV video app, Amazon Fire TV app, and Samsung Smart TV app, making a move to bigger screens and different platforms.
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