Your Facebook feed is about to become a lot noisier with autoplay

15 Feb 2017

Using reactions in Facebook video. Image: weedezign/Shutterstock

Facebook has revealed its latest list of changes to its video platform, including the fact that autoplay videos will now play sound by default.

Facebook has emphasised over and over again that its focus for the foreseeable future would be on native video content, from both a creator and advertiser perspective.

Users will be familiar with the nearly endless stream of video content on their feed, which currently remains muted.

Publishers and advertisers caught on quick, altering their video content so that it would work silently, with added captions to get the message across.

This practice, however, will soon be a thing of the past.

In a blog post, Facebook revealed that when its latest updates are implemented, all video content will play sound by default as you scroll through your feed.

The idea of various people talking at you might seem rather unappealing, but the company did confirm that sound will not play on devices that are muted.

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Appease advertisers

On top of that, sound on autoplay videos can be muted again by switching off ‘videos in news feed start with sound’ in the app’s settings.

The decision to make videos play sound by default will likely appease Facebook’s reluctant advertisers, who have spoken earlier this year about their hesitance about trying to sell their products on the platform.

Another feature to be added by Facebook replicates one used by its biggest rival YouTube, that being the ability to have a picture-in-picture video on screen.

If a video is selected for viewing, you can then minimise it to a bottom corner of the screen, where it will keep playing until you swipe it away.

The other major change will see Facebook’s video platform migrate over to TV, with a new app for smart TVs to increase its potential audience.

Using reactions in Facebook video. Image: weedezign/Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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