Photo: Getty Images
Much of Facebook’s recent growth can be attributed to the spread of video on its network – and the company told investors recently it planned to aggressively monetise that success.
Today, it announced some ideas to get things moving – starting with a change many users may not appreciate, the BBC reports.
Videos have autoplayed on Facebook’s News Feed for some time, leading to a curious rise of “silent movies” as publishers adapted to knowing that the majority of viewers would be watching, but not listening, to their work.
But between now and the end of the year Facebook’s News Feed will be enabling sound on your News Feed by default, a move the company has been testing out on a limited number of users for a short while.
The firm said it had received “positive feedback” so far.
“With this update, sound fades in and out as you scroll through videos in News Feed, bringing those videos to life,” the company explained in a blog post on Tuesday.
“As people watch more video on phones, they’ve come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on.”
Thankfully – for those who don’t want videos to suddenly play out on the bus – if your phone is set to be completely silent, Facebook will not override that. You can also turn it off completely in the Facebook app’s settings.