No more watching videos at work: Facebook will now default to audio
Loading...
Facebook has unveiled a new set of video-related, mobile-friendly features, continuing a commitment to focus more on video and expand the platform's accessibility.聽
Last May, Facebook executive Nicola Mendelsohn predicted that Facebook would "probably" be "all video" within five years.聽Agree or disagree, videos posted to the social networking site already receive more than 80 percent of .
Earlier this month, the company鈥檚 founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, , "I see video as a mega trend on the same order as mobile. That's why we're going to keep putting video first across our family of apps and making it easier for people to capture and share video in new ways."
On Tuesday, the company made good on Mr. Zuckerberg鈥檚 promise 聽the new features. Together, they reflect an ongoing shift away from primarily accessing social media on desktops to expanding on other devices.
Many of the company鈥檚 innovations are geared towards phones, which 聽members already use daily to access the site. Most people using mobile devices to capture video record vertically, and the site鈥檚 mobile version will now match its display to accommodate that, allowing videos to take up more of the screen as users scroll. On Android devices, there will also be the option to continue playing the video even after leaving the Facebook app.
The company鈥檚 decision to make a video鈥檚 sound play automatically has also drawn widespread notice. The feature could make it harder to peek at your newsfeed during work, but may pose less of a problem on a mobile device while wearing earbuds. Facebook鈥檚 press release said the company "positive feedback"聽after testing the feature, and that users will still be able to turn off the default in their settings.
With Facebook serving as a large, still-growing portal for video, changes like these could shape the videos users see in the coming years. In December, Ad Age鈥檚 Emma Hall r, shooting vertical ads and creating compelling visual content for silent autoplay.
It鈥檚 too soon to tell whether Facebook鈥檚 latest announcement will advance the former trend, or reverse the latter one, and if these changes will have unintended consequences. had been a boon for hearing-impaired users, and that subtitles made 鈥済ood business sense" and was "the right thing to do for accessibility.鈥
Another new product announced in Tuesday鈥檚 press release could give the company an even bigger influence over viral videos. The company plans to release a new video app for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TV that will bring videos shared and posted to the website to users鈥 television sets.
This could mark the start of a bigger foray into Facebook users鈥 living rooms. Last month, that the company is 鈥渋n discussions with media companies to license long-form, TV-quality programming, people familiar with the situation said. A set-top box app would be a natural way to distribute that 'premium' content and make it accessible on TV sets.鈥
Facebook鈥檚 vice president of partnerships, Dan Rose, . As he sees it, the company aims to first reach eyeballs on mobile devices then help users see those videos on a bigger screen.
鈥淲e're a mobile-first company, so the products we build will always be oriented around the experience you have on a mobile device when you're watching video,鈥 he said.