Google tests autoplaying videos on YouTube for Android
If you use the official YouTube application on an Android device, you may have noticed that videos start to play automatically when you open the application or browse the video selection on the Home screen.
Android Central reports that Google runs an autoplaying videos test currently in the YouTube application for Android.
Videos play without sound, but they do play to the end if you don't pause them or move on. This can be problematic right now as the default autoplay setting makes no distinction between the Android device's connection type.
In other words, videos will autoplay regardless of whether you are connected to Wi-Fi or not.
Android users who notice this behavior may change this in the settings. Open Account > Settings > General, and locate the new Play as you browse setting there.
You can set it to off or "only on WiFi". Off turns the feature off completely which means that videos won't autoplay anymore on the Home screen. If you select only on Wifi, videos will only autoplay if the device is connected to a WiFi router or access point.
Many popular services and applications play videos automatically. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram do it for instance, and so does Google now, at least for part of the YouTube population on Android.
YouTube played videos automatically before, but only after a video that you watched ends. This new autoplay behavior is different, as it plays video while you scroll the Home screen.
The feature can be quite bothersome. If you are indeed interested in a video that started to play automatically, you end up having to rewind it to the beginning to start watching from the beginning with sound as autoplaying videos play without sound.
Check out:
- Google tests new video autoplay feature on YouTube
- How To Stop Video Autoplay On Youtube
- How to Stop Two YouTube Videos From Playing Simultaneously
Closing Words
While I don't mind videos that autoplay when I open them specifically, I dislike it when services play videos automatically when I don't. Not only is it wasting bandwidth, especially if I don't want to watch the video, it is also making decisions on my behalf without asking me about it first. It may also mean that advertisement is loaded automatically while you scroll (I don't have the feature yet in my YouTube app and cannot verify if that is the case).
The feature is tested in the Android app currently only.
Now You: What is your take on autoplaying videos on YouTube and in general?
Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.