Soon Facebook will start playing autoplaying videos, both from advertisers and your friends. While this may undoubtably be annoying to many, it could also take up a significant chuck of your monthly data allowance from your mobile operator. So how do you turn this off? Also see: 13 best Facebook tips and tricks.
It could be said that putting up with autoplaying videos is part of the price you pay for using a free service – and the choice on Facebook’s part to autoplay your friend’s videos is so your brain doesn’t learn to just tune out all video content in the same way it probably already has done with animations in banner ads. You’ll have to pay attention to sort your friends videos from ads, so – thinks Facebook – you’re more likely to engage with them (and they’re probably right).
The bad news is that you can’t turn Facebook video ads off completely – but you can set it so they will only autoplay if you’re on Wi-Fi. Here’s how.
How to turn off autoplaying Facebook ads
On your iPhone, open the Settings app, scroll down and select Facebook.
Select Settings
Turn on Auto-play on Wi-Fi only.
And you’re all set.
Author: neil_bennett, Global Director of Product and Data
Neil is global director of product and data at Foundry. Previously he spent 20 years editing Digital Arts, so knows a thing or two about digital and product design.