Warning: Facebook automatically playing videos eats your mobile data and how to switch it off

One of Facebook’s latest updates is the ability to automatically play videos as you scroll down your timeline.

In the past, the videos would require you to press on the play button so you could control what you wanted to see – which usually means you skipped the videos that were ads. Now all videos just begin to play automatically.

Video is a a great feature which enhances the Facebook experience however we need to remember that automatically playing videos on mobile phone demand more data usage.

While the videos are heavily compressed and are small enough to automatically start playing with little buffering, those that are carefully watching their mobile data usage are wise to keep an eye out on this extra load that Facebook places on your data bill.

How to switch off Facebook automatic video playing on mobile ?

Fortunately there is a way to disable the automatic playing of these video so you can choose which video content you don’t mind watching (and paying for).

step 1 – click on the “Option lines”

Step 2 – scroll down until you see “App Settings”

Step 3 – tap on Videos Play automatically

Step 4 – Set it to Wi-Fi only or Off

How to switch off Facebook automatic video playing on desktop ?

head over to Facebook.com and select Settings.

On the left side select video

Now you can choose the quality of the video to either SD or HD where SD uses less data.

You can also set the auto-play to either ON or OFF