Facebook testing auto playback for videos on mobile

The next time you decide to scroll through your Facebook News Feed while waiting for the doctor or commuting, you could be in for a bit of a shock. Facebook is testing out a feature where videos will start playing automatically the moment they appear on your News Feed while you’re using your phone to access the social network.

In a blog post announcing the test run of this feature, Kelly Mayes of Facebook wrote that Facebook is rolling out this feature as a limited test for now. It will, however, be made available widely over a period of time.

The feature will not be all that intrusive, if Facebook is to be believed. The moment a video appears on your News Feed, it will start playing all by itself. The playback, however, will be silent at first. If the video seems interesting to you and you would like to view it properly, you can simply tap on the video and it will open up with sound in full screen. If the video doesn’t catch your fancy, you can simply scroll through it.

At least now you don't have to hit multiple buttons to play a video

If you’ve used Vine or Instagram video before, this feature will pretty much mimic the applications on Facebook’s. For now, this playback feature will be limited to only videos posted by individuals, musicians, and bands. You need not get worked up about every single video starting to play automatically on your phone. Only videos specifically uploaded to Facebook will be eligible for auto playback. Instagram, Vine, YouTube hosted videos will still need to be clicked upon for playback.

Facebook, however, does not confirm or deny that advertisements in the future could have auto-playback functions too. In answer to an FAQ that asks if ads will be added to this feature, Mayes writes, “Over time, we’ll continue to explore how to bring this to marketers in the future.”

Considering Facebook's keenness to try video ads for the website soon, this could well be the first step towards ensuring more unwitting eyeballs towards advertisements. These video advertisements that are going to debut on Facebook sometime in the future are set to be 15 second spots – the same duration as Instagram videos – and will be limited to three in number per day.