Facebook has confirmed that autoplay video ads will arrive on your New Feed in the very near future.
The social media site has announced that the promoted videos will start appearing on user’s News Feeds this week.
Initially the promoted videos will be a mini trailer for the new film Divergent, due to launch in cinemas Q1 2014.
The promoted videos will start playing as soon as they appear onscreen within your News Feed, thankfully without sound. However, this will apply to both mobile and desktop Facebook versions.
“This week, a small number of people will see video ads for the new film ‘Divergent’ begin playing as they come into view in News Feed on mobile and desktop”, explains Facebook. “Rather than having to click or tap to play, videos will begin to play as they appear onscreen – without sound – similar to how they behave when shared by friends or verified pages.”
To stop the video, simply scroll on past it or if you want to watch it with sound, you can click or tap the video to launch it in fullscreen.
If you’re worried that the videos will start eating up your 3G data, Facebook states that all the videos will be pre-downloaded when you’re connected to Wi-Fi .
Although the initial autoplay video functionality will only be for the Divergent mini trailer, the feature will be applied to additional content in the future.
“We’ll continue to refine this new way for brands to tell stories on Facebook to ensure the best experience for people and marketers.”
The autoplay video model is one that Facebook has already used with Instagram, where video automatically start playing whenever they appear on screen.
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