Facebook has never made a secret of its love for video, but it may have been challenged by its love for bots. The reinvention of Facebook as a video platform is in full swing! Since last Tuesday, some Australians may have noticed that autoplay on all types of video (including ads and Facebook Live) was acting differently from their mobile app.
In one version of the Facebook Live test, the audio plays as soon as the video starts, if you have sound turned on on your device. Another group is able to turn the audio on during the test session using an icon that will be in the lower right corner of the video.
Both groups will see a pop-up message telling them how to use the controls.
A Facebook official stated (a separate statement follows):
"We're running a small test in News Feed where people can choose whether they want to watch videos with sound on from the start. For people in this test who do not want sound to play, they can switch it off in Settings or directly on the video itself.
This is one of several tests we're running as we work to improve the video experience for people on Facebook."
It's an interesting test of the feature, given that Facebook's own research has found that 80 percent of people react negatively when mobile video ads play loudly without warning.
