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Yesterday’s update to Facebook’s iOS app included a new feature to automatically play native videos while scrolling through your News Feed. Facebook has been testing autoplay for a few months, so its inclusion comes as no big surprise.
Videos autoplay with the sound off, but you may not want them to autoplay at all, especially if you’re on a cellular network. Streaming videos are a surefire way to eat through your data plan in a hurry. Though you can’t disable autoplay completely, you can prevent it from working when you’re not on a Wi-Fi network.
On iOS devices, go to Settings > Facebook > Settings. Under the Video section, turn on “Auto-play on WiFi only.”
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET
On Android devices, go to App Settings from within the Facebook app, then check the box next to “Auto-play videos on WiFi only.”
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET
It’s not known whether Facebook will ever allow autoplay to be disabled entirely on mobile devices, but if it did, would you disable it? Or does the autoplay feature allow you to be more engaged with videos in your Feed? Let us know in the comments.
