When you scroll through your News Feed on the Facebook mobile app, any video you pass will automatically begin playing. While this creates a very active and engaging scrolling experience, it is a massive drain on your iPhone’s battery and can rapidly consume your monthly cellular data allowance if you are not connected to Wi-Fi. It can also be embarrassing if a video suddenly blasts loud audio in a quiet public space. If you want to conserve data and take back control of your News Feed, you can completely turn off video autoplay.
How to Stop Facebook Videos from Auto-Playing
You can change the video playback behavior in the Facebook app’s internal media settings.
- Open the Facebook app on your iPhone.
- Tap the Menu button (the three horizontal lines or your profile picture) in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- Scroll down to the very bottom and tap to expand the Settings & Privacy section.
- Tap on Settings.
- Scroll down to the “Preferences” section and tap on Media.
- Look under the “Autoplay” heading.
- You will see three options: “On mobile data and Wi-Fi”, “On Wi-Fi only”, and “Never Autoplay Videos”. Tap on Never Autoplay Videos to select it.
When you return to your News Feed, all videos will now remain paused, displaying a static thumbnail image with a ‘Play’ button in the center. The videos will only begin playing, and consuming your mobile data, when you explicitly tap on them with your finger.