There are a few reasons why you might want to turn off auto video play on your social media platforms. With the recent tragic happenings, from the video of the collapsed building in Lagos Island to the shooting in New Zealand, these contents are shared on social media daily. Some of such videos may be traumatising. It might also just be that you want to conserve data.
These steps will allow you to turn off autoplay videos on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
On Twitter, it is a very easy process, whether you’re using an iOS or Android device.
On Twitter for iOS, go to settings and select Data. Go to Video Autoplay and select Never play videos automatically.
On an Android, launch Twitter, tap on your picture, navigate to settings, select data and tap on Video autoplay. Choose Never play videos automatically.
For Facebook on iOS, tap the three horizontal lines in the lower-right corner of the app, select settings and then Account Settings. Scroll down to Videos and Photos and select it. Now, go to Autoplay, and choose Never Autoplay Videos.
On Android, tap the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner of the app, select Autoplay then Choose Never Autoplay Videos.
Instagram works a little different because it is a video and photo app, and the videos mostly play automatically. It currently doesn’t give you the option to stop playing videos automatically. Instead, you’ll find an option to reduce the amount of data you use on the app. This option doesn’t stop videos from playing, but it will stop them from pre-loading and just jumping at you once you get on the app.
To use less data on Instagram for iOS, Tap the upper-right corner of Instagram, go to Cellular Data Use, then turn on Use Less Data.
For Android, tap the more options icon in the upper-right corner of Instagram, select Cellular Data Use then turns on Use Less Data.