Credit: http://marketingland.com/facebook-now-officially-showcases-vertical-videos-in-mobile-news-feeds-189401
If you are a video freak and spend most of your time gulping videos on Facebook, this piece of information will gladden your heart. Facebook has announced a series of exciting video updates, including autoplay sound on videos, changes to vertical videos, and ability to minimize the video you’re watching to a picture-in-picture view.
However, not all features announced by Facebook on Tuesday can be described as exciting. The social media giant announced that autoplay sound on videos will begin with Tuesday’s update; not something to get excited about. With this feature, users are in for unwanted noise any time they try to catch up with their friend’s lives.
Auto Play Sound on Video
Prior to today’s update, videos on News Feed had played silently, and users have had to tap on a video to hear sound. The company said it decided to change the way things were with sound on video because it felt people wanted sound when the volume on their devices turned on. Facebook based its new feature on the feedback it got from a handful of people who tested the feature months back.
Good thing is, you can disable this feature by “switching off “Videos in News Feed Start With Sound” in Settings,” Facebook’s Dana Sittler, Product Manager, and Alex Li, Engineering Manager said.
Video Credit: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/02/new-ways-to-watch-facebook-video/
Vertical Video
Vertical video on Facebook also got an expert touch from the company’s engineers. In today’s update, the company announced that larger format is now available to all users watching videos on both iOS and Android. The company said its decision to roll out this feature was based on positive feedbacks it got from the test it conducted in 2016.
Watch and Scroll
It is now possible to scroll through your News Feed while watching a video on Facebook. You can minimize the video you’re watching to a picture-in-picture view that keeps playing in the corner of your screen while you browse other stories in News Feed.
“You can drag the video to any corner of the screen, and if you’re using an Android device, you can keep the video playing even when you exit the Facebook app to do something else on your phone.”
A new Video app for TV
Finally, in today’s update, Facebook announced a new video app for TV that is expected to roll out soon to app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV. This update means you can now watch Facebook videos on a bigger screen. Tuesday’s update, according to the social media giant, is an expansion on a feature released last year, which offered users the opportunity to stream videos from Facebook to their TV.
“With the app, you can watch videos shared by friends or Pages you follow, top live videos from around the world, and recommended videos based on your interests. You can also catch up on videos you’ve saved to watch later, as well as revisit videos you’ve watched, shared or uploaded. We look forward to seeing how people use the app to enjoy Facebook videos in a new way,” the company said.
