Facebook To Autoplay Videos With Sound On By Default (androidandme.com)

Currently, Facebook videos autoplay on your News Feed as you scroll up and down. While they eat data and various resources, the saving grace is that they are silent -- that is, until now. Facebook has announced several new changes to its video platform today, including a setting that will autoplay videos with sound turned on by default. Android and Me reports: The audio of videos will fade in and out as you're scrolling through your feed. Fortunately, Facebook will at least make it so that audio won't autoplay if your phone is set to silent. If you're not a fan of this change, there will be a setting to turn audio autoplay off. The change is that it will now be on by default for everyone. Other feature introductions are larger previews for vertical videos, a picture-in-picture mode for videos so you can watch and continue scrolling (and even exit the app without interrupting the video on Android), and a Facebook Video app coming to smart TVs.

Comments

Facebook use plummets during business hours

[Qzukk]

Employers rejoice as productivity increases.

Re:Facebook use plummets during business hours

[saloomy]

This will just lead to browsers muting sound by default

Re:Facebook use plummets during business hours

[Slashdot Junky]

While you may be correct, all videos, audio, and animated image formats should be click-to-play by default. The move to HTML5 video and audio has been especially annoying for me, because Firefox seems to not support this simple functionality. It is way overdue. My preference is for the elements to not be downloaded until I click play. This isn't limited to ad-related content. A lot of articles, news or not, include video clips that aren't needed since the words are sufficient.

Re:Facebook use plummets during business hours

[dgatwood]

Even if it is silent, it is still wasting huge amounts of battery power for content that the user may not even care about. Choose a keyframe that adequately explains the content of the video, and if users want to watch the video, they can click. If a user is too lazy to click to play the video, that user didn't really care about playing it anyway, so playing it was a waste of power.

Re:Facebook use plummets during business hours

[markdavis]

I have yet to find a single case, ever, that I would think that autoplaying video and/or audio on a website is appropriate. It is just plain, 100% annoying and presumptuous. Offer a NON ANIMATED option to play something and give the user a choice.

Besides being extremely annoying, unwanted video consumes TONS of bandwidth, CPU, and battery on devices.

I absolutely predicted how annoying the web would become when site designers got a hold of these "wonderful" tools that were coming and have been dreading what was coming. We used to be able to stop this crap in its tracks with addons/plugins that restricted Flash, and disable animated GIF's. Those days are now gone. Turn off javascript and 90% of websites just flat out break. Turn off HTML5 video/audio and then you have no access to ANY video/audio.

The web is turning into TV- something for sites to FORCE what they want you to see, they way they want you to see it. Want to use a smaller window for your browser? Well too F'ing bad! Want a nice menu at the top so you can jump to the info you want? Well too F'ing bad! Want to read something without things jumping in front of you over and over? Well too F'ing bad- "we want your feedback" "subscribe!" "take our survey" "click here to chat!!" Want to know how big a page is? Well too F'ing bad- it scrolls forever, adding more and more without warning? Want to just see some actual content? Well too F'ing bad- you have to wade through multi megapixel useless images, sectionalized areas, side scrolling, junk with tons of while space. Want to try and read something without distraction? Well too F'ing bad- every single site has to have animated junk all over it, constantly moving and scrolling. Want to click on something and have instant action because your time is important? Well too F'ing bad- we are going to make EVERYTHING fade in and fade out, scroll in and scroll out. Ug!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, this stuff touched a nerve. A big one.

Re:Facebook use plummets during business hours

[DontBeAMoran]

Click-to-play is not enough. We need click-to-download-and-play, because there's a new fad about making 150MB animated GIFs that should be in video format instead. And if we're not planning on watching the GIFs or the videos, it's wasted bandwidth for everyone involved.

Re:That's nice

[Mr D from 63]

Yet another reason to not use facebook.

Yes people like you are too stupid to be able to change a setting and your only option is failure. Obviously even the most simple of tasks is well beyond your capability.

Facebook sucks by default, no settings can change that.

Re:Vertical Video

[TWX]

Facebook is running out of new users at their current intelligence level. In order to expand (which apparently is what modern business requires, it's not enough to simply remain the same) they have to figure out how to acquire more and more customers, which means lowering the bar further and further.

I still have to wonder how sound their business model is. Have they actually turned a profit yet?

Web don'ts

[Dracos]

Autoplay video has been on every year's "Top 10 Web Don'ts" list since at least 1998. It's the most consistently hated practice since the web began.

Re:Web don'ts

[SeaFox]

Autoplay video has been on every year's "Top 10 Web Don'ts" list since at least 1998.

Why would Facebook care what users think of the practice? They aren't Facebook's customers.

Re:Vertical Video

[AdamThor]

"I still have to wonder how sound their business model is."

Business model now have sound by default!

Finally facebook shoots itself in the foot

[Anonymous Coward]

the internet for many years has tolerated a lot of bullshit form web sites, but one remains universally unacceptable, making noise suddenly and without warning.

web pages need to be quiet unless i specifically request they make noise