How to stop videos playing on Facebook Android

Like many social media platforms, Facebook serves autoplay videos on its homepage, but it also offers an option to disable automatic video playback on Android, iOS, and the web. Not only might some users find auto-playing videos to be annoying, but they can also be a huge data hog, so it makes sense to disable the option on all platforms. Facebook has invited its fair share of controversies over the years, but autoplay is one aspect the user has control over.

On Facebook, switching off the autoplay option on Android, iOS, or the web only applies to that particular platform, which means turning it off on the website will only stop videos from automatically playing on the website. Likewise, stopping on mobile will only disable the autoplay option when using the Android and iOS apps. Once the autoplay option is disabled, all videos on Facebook will become tap-to-play and will show a traditional triangular 'Play' button that will then need to be clicked for the video to play.

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To stop Facebook videos automatically playing on Android, open the app on and tap on the hamburger menu (three parallel lines)in the top-right corner. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and hit Settings and Privacyfollowed by Settings.Next, select Mediaunder Preferences and then tap on Autoplay. Finally, set the autoplay option to Never Autoplay Videos. The change will be immediately saved and will reflect in the autoplay settings page. On iOS, open the app and tap on the menu buttonin the bottom-right corner.Thenselect Settings and Privacy. On the next page, select Settings, scroll down, tap onPreferencesfollowed by Media.Finally, tap on the Autoplayoption and select Never Autoplay Videos. That should immediately stop videos from automatically playing in the iOS app.

Disabling Through The Web Version

For folks using Facebook on the web, log in to the website and click on the profile image. In some cases, users may have to hit a downwards arrow next to the profile image. In either case, there will be a drop-down menu where the user can selectSettings and Privacy. Then click on Settingsand on the next page, scroll down to the bottom and select Videos. From here, find Auto-Play Videosand use the corresponding drop-down menu to select Offto disable the autoplay option.

Autoplay videos on websites or apps can be a major nuisance, eating up valuable data and slowing down the internet connection. However, Facebook, which was surpassed by TikTok as the most downloaded social app last year, offers the option to prevent videos from automatically playing in the app or on the website. This means users won't have to tolerate the annoying behavior any longer and irrespective of whether they're surfing Facebook ona desktop or their phone.

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Source: Facebook