Facebook will start playing videos with sound automatically in your News Feed
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The days of surreptitiously scrolling though your Facebook News Feed during a boring work meeting could soon be over.
The social network has started testing a new feature that will see videos playing with the sound enabled by default in some users' News Feeds.
Until now, videos in News Feed have played silently, meaning you have to tap on a video to hear the sound.
Facebook claims that enabling sound by default will make its video experience "richer, more engaging and more flexible".
(Photo: Facebook)
"As people watch more video on phones, they've come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on," said Facebook product manager Dana Sittler.
"After testing sound on in News Feed and hearing positive feedback, we’re slowly bringing it to more people."
Facebook has announced several other features designed to improve its video experience, which accounts for much of the social network's recent growth.
It is now possible to preview vertical videos in News Feed on a mobile phone, and you can minimise the video you're watching to a picture-in-picture view that keeps playing in the corner of your screen as you browse other stories in News Feed.
Facebook has also announced a new video app for TV, which will roll out on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV.
"Our video app for TV is a new way to enjoy Facebook videos on a bigger screen," the company said.
"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."
How to disable sound in videos
While videos auto-playing with sound may sound like a big improvement to some users, others are likely to find the prospect of their friends' videos blaring out on the bus rather alarming.
(Photo: Getty)
Luckily, it is possible to disable the new feature.
Firstly, if your phone is set to silent, Facebook will respect that, and videos will continue to play with the sound muted.
If you want to make sure videos never play with sound, here's what you need to do:
On an iOS device:
Tap the menu button, which looks like three stacked horizontal bars Scroll down and tap "Settings" Tap "Account Settings" Tap "Sounds" Turn off the switch that reads "Videos in News Feed Start With Sound"
On an Android device:
Tap the menu button Scroll down and tap settings Turn off the switch that reads "Videos in News Feed Start With Sound"
Note that the option to switch off this feature will only be available if it has already been enabled on your phone.