How to turn off video autoplay in facebook app

How to turn off autoplay videos on Facebook, Twitter, Firefox, and more

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Turn off this annoying and potentially harmful feature

By Cameron Faulkner and Barbara Krasnoff

Updated Apr 15, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC|

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You’ve probably been caught off guard by videos that play automatically on Facebook, Twitter, or just across the internet in general. They begin playing as soon as you load a page or (if they’re more deviously implemented) when you start scrolling through a page.

Automatic video play is a feature that, while nice to have when it’s surfacing content that’s related to your interests, can be pretty annoying. Autoplay videos can be harmful, too, exposing you to violent, offensive, or otherwise unwanted content that you shouldn’t have to see by default.

Whether you just want to put an end to autoplay videos on social media platforms or are looking for a more comprehensive fix, we’ve got some tips. Keep in mind that you’ll need to adjust these settings for every device that you use, since your preferences on, say, your phone do not automatically push to your PC.

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

Facebook

If you’re using Facebook on your browser, you can turn off autoplay videos this way:

• Go to the drop-down menu at the top right of the page.
• Select “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings.”
• Look for the “Videos” listing on the left-hand menu. Inside of that option is a toggle where you can turn off autoplaying videos.

Facebook has similar options available for its iOS and Android apps:

Using the iOS app

• Click the menu button on the bottom of your screen.
• Once you’re there, tap “Settings & Privacy,” then “Settings. ”
• Scroll down until you find “Media and Contacts,” then tap “Videos and Photos.”
• Finally, once you find “Autoplay,” you can turn off the feature.

Using the Android app

• Click the menu button at the top right of your screen.
• Once you’re there, scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy,” then “Settings.”
• Scroll down until you find “Media and Contacts” and tap on it.
• Tap on “Autoplay” and set it to “Never Autoplay Videos.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter

• Click on “More” in the left-hand menu, and then on “Settings and privacy.”
• Select “Accessibility, display, and languages” > “Data usage”
• Click on the “Autoplay” setting. You can then switch off the autoplaying of videos on your feed.

Using the iOS and Android apps

• Click the profile picture at the top of your phone screen.
• Select “Settings and privacy” in the menu.
• Navigate to “Data usage,” tap on “Video autoplay” and set it to “Never.”

Instagram

Instagram doesn’t allow for autoplay videos to be turned off, so you’ll have to tread carefully here. Videos won’t autoplay with sound if you use Instagram on your browser. Stopping autoplay on mobile devices is possible, but a little roundabout.

Using a mobile app

• Go to your profile page and tap on the three lines in the upper right corner
• Go to “Settings” > “Account” > “Cellular Data Use”
• For Android: toggle the “Data Saver” on and tap on “High Resolution Media.” If you then select “Never,” then media such as videos won’t load in advance.
• For iOS: toggle on “Use Less Data”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit

Reddit, like most sites that host video, autoplays videos by default. However, it’s pretty easy to turn it off.

Using the newest design

• Click your username in the upper-right corner and select “User settings” in the menu.
• Select the “Feed settings” tab at the top of the page, and toggle off the “Autoplay media” switch.

Using the legacy version

• Click “Preferences” next to your username in the top right of the window.
• Under “Media,” look for and uncheck “Autoplay Reddit videos on the desktop comments page.”
• You’ll need to hit “save options” at the bottom of the screen to put the changes through.

Using the mobile app

• Tap the icon next to the search bar, then hit “Settings.”
• You’ll see “Autoplay” near the top of the page, and you can easily choose to turn it off.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Desktop browsers

There are a variety of desktop browsers out there — some of which let you turn off video autoplay and some of which don’t.

Using Google Chrome

If you use Google Chrome and want to turn off video autoplay — you can’t. There used to be an experimental command-line flag that allowed you to turn them off (you can find the flags by typing chrome://flags/ into Chrome’s address field), but it’s disappeared.

You can turn the sound off (which might help a bit):

• Tap on the three dots in the upper right corner
• Select “Settings” > “Site settings” > “Sound”
• Toggle sound off. You can add exceptions for specific sites here.

Using Microsoft Edge

Interestingly, Microsoft’s Edge browser, which is also based on the Chromium open-source design, does let you turn off — well, at least, limit — video autoplay:

• Click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select “Settings.”
• In the left-hand column, click on “Site Permissions,” and then scroll down to and select “Media autoplay.”

You can either allow audio and video to play automatically or limit it. According to the instructions, whether autoplay will work or not will depend on “how you’ve visited the page and whether you interacted with media in the past.”

Using Firefox

Firefox has a similar feature that lets you turn off autoplay, for the most part.

• Click on the three lines in the upper right corner of the browser and select “Preferences.”
• In the left-hand column, click on “Privacy & Security.”
• Scroll down to the section headed “Permissions” and look for “Autoplay.” Click on the button marked “Settings.”

A drop-down menu will let you allow audio and video, block audio, or block audio and video. You can also specify sites that you want to differ from your defaults — for example, if you block audio and video as a default, but you want to allow it for, say, The Verge.

Using Safari

Safari makes it simple to disable autoplay. In fact, it assumes that you want the feature disabled to begin with. However, if it hasn’t been disabled — or if you want to make some exceptions to the rule — here’s what you do:

• While in the app, go to Safari > Preferences in the top menu.
• Click on “Websites” in the top menu.
• Look for and select “Auto-Play” in the side menu.
• Look for the drop-down menu at the bottom right of the window and select “Never Auto-Play.”

As with Firefox, you can whitelist any sites that you want to be an exception to the rule.

Update September 4th, 2020 5:11PM ET: This article was originally published on March 15th, 2019. Most of the entries have been updated.

Update April 15, 2021 5:30PM ET: Additional entries have been updated.

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How to Turn Off Autoplay Videos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

It can get annoying to accidentally see a video automatically play on its own, even if you never wanted it to in the first place. It’s quite common to see that on social media, especially on apps like Facebook and Twitter, and there is always a chance that said content would not be something you actually want to see.

Why Should You Consider Disabling the Autoplay Feature?

At times, you might not be aware of the type of content that’d automatically play in a video. No one except the uploader has any idea of what would pop up when scrolling past a post that starts playing, especially if it may be offensive or outright crude for you. Thankfully, there are ways to combat these issues on mobile & PC.

How to

Given how most apps are available on both mobile as well as PC, we will have two sections devoted to each version of the social media app in question. Be sure to pay attention to the two different iterations of each application so as to better understand the instructions.

Facebook on the Browser

1. Click on the drop-down menu button found at the top right of the browser window.
2. Go to the Settings section of the drop-down menu
3. Find the Videos section of the Settings menu
4. Once you enter that option, disable the ability to autoplay videos.

Facebook on the Mobile App

1. Tap on the menu button on your screen
2. Go to the “Settings & Privacy” and then tap the “Settings” button
3. As you scroll down the menu, go to the “Media and Contacts” section before tapping on “Videos and Photos”
4. Go to the “Autoplay” tab and disable the feature from there.

How to

While Facebook itself might be a little more reserved when it comes to the content it presents, Twitter itself is generally notorious for how explicit it can be with its content. Thankfully, there is always a way to combat that issue by instead tackling any unwanted media in the same methods done with Facebook.

Twitter on Desktop

1. Go to the “More” button on the left of the screen, and then click “Settings and privacy”.
2. Click on the “Accessibility, display, and languages” section and then repeat the same for “Data usage”
3. Select the “Autoplay” section and disable the feature from there.

Twitter on Mobile

1. Tap on your account’s profile picture within the screen.
2. Go to the “Settings and privacy” section of the sidebar.
3. Navigate your way to the “Data usage” option.
4. Tap on “Video autoplay” so you can choose to never autoplay videos.

How to

Given that Instagram is used more often on mobile devices (especially with the desktop version being limited at times), there will only be attention put towards the mobile version of the app. That being said, it is somewhat difficult to tackle any sort of videos that would normally be found from autoplay, so keep track of these steps:

1. Go to the profile of your account and tap the three lines found on the upper right corner of the screen.
2. Tap on “Settings”, then “Account”, and then “Cellular Data Use”.
3. If you’re using Android, simply go to “Data Saver” and then “High Resolution Media” so you can then select “Never”. It may seem vague but it references that videos won’t load. If you’re using iOS, just tap “Use Less Data”.

How to

Apart from the usual social media apps, Reddit has videos that autoplay, so those who do use the site will need to better understand how to work their way with disabling the feature. It should be worth mentioning that the platform has two different designs, so they’ll be discussed with separate steps in mind

New Reddit Format

1. Click on your account’s name, then select the “User settings” button within the pop-up menu.
2. Go to the “Feed settings” tab and then disable the “Autoplay media” switch.

Legacy Reddit Format

1. Go to the “Preferences” link next to your account name on the upper right of the window.
2. Move to the “Media” section and then uncheck the option that reads “Autoplay Reddit videos on the desktop comments page.”
3. Click on the “save options” button before exiting

Reddit on Mobile Apps

1. Tap on the icon that’s found next to the search bar.
2. Tap on the word “Settings”.
3. Go to the “Autoplay” section at the top of the screen and disable it from there.

How to

This section will cover the three most commonly used Internet Browsers used in general: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Safari. Each of them has its own list of settings, so don’t mix up the instructions of one with the name of another.

Google Chrome

1. Click on the three dots on the upper right corner of the window
2. Go to “Settings”, then “Site settings”, and then “Sound”.
3. Toggle the option to remove audio. It should be worth mentioning that you can apply this rule to certain sites you see fit.

Microsoft Edge

1. Click on the three dots on the upper right corner of the screen
2. Go to the left of the screen, click on the “Site Permissions” tab, and then make your way to the “Media autoplay” section
3. Choose to either allow both video and audio to operate or limit the feature as a whole. That being said, the results may vary on the type of site you use.

Firefox

1. Click on the three lines and then select “Preferences”
2. Go to the left of the screen and select “Privacy & Security.”
3. Go down the menu and find the “Permissions” section.
4. Click on “Autoplay” and then click on the “Settings” button
5. Use the drop-down menu to decide to either allow audio and video to play as well as to block both or only audio. There’s also the ability to select what features work with whichever sites you have in mind.

Safari

1. Go to the Safari section on the top of the screen and then click “Preferences”.
2. Select the “Websites” section.
3. Find the “Auto-Play” tab within the side menu.
4. Use the drop-down menu to use the “Never Auto-Play” option.

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How do I turn off autoplay for videos in Facebook Feed?

Help Center

Using Facebook

Video on Facebook Watch

We're updating the mobile version of Facebook.com. More

You can change the video autoplay settings at any time.

To change this setting on a mobile browser:

Mobile Classic

Click the icon in the upper right corner of the Facebook window. nine0003

Scroll down, tap Settings & Privacy and then Settings.

Scroll down to Preferences and click Media.

Scroll down to the Autoplay section and select one of the options:

Wi-Fi Only - Videos will play automatically only when the device is connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Disable Video Autoplay - Videos will never autoplay.

New version for mobile browser

Click the icon in the top right corner of the Facebook window.

Scroll down and click Settings.

Scroll down to the Media section.

Select Auto play video and tap next to Auto play video when connected to Wi-Fi to turn this feature on or off.

Learn how to stop autoplay videos on your computer, iPhone, or Android device.

You can help us improve the way videos are shown on Facebook by providing feedback on the videos that autoplay in your Feed. nine0003

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How to disable the autonomus for your Android Facebook App

Facebook is installed on your mobile phone Android . In addition, knowing that consumes enough resources and this is one battery eater . You may have noticed that when you slide on the wall and the app is with video .

This, part of being a little tedious , in case you are away from home or somewhere where is not you are connected to Wi-Fi , ends up consuming your data rate in a short time. So the best we can do is Disable Autoplay videos from Facebook when we don't have a WiFi connection, or at any time.

Using these simple steps you can save yourself a significant amount of data on the Internet from your mobile phone Android and Exteles of your Course :