Facebook enables auto-play of video ads in news feeds

Social networking giant Facebook unveiled a new plan which would help boost its revenue stream by allowing video ads to play by default on users' news feeds. The firm has been experimenting with such a feature for videos posted by users themselves for the last three months and has now opened the option to video advertisers, as per an official post.

"We've been testing a way to make videos more engaging on Facebook, and as a result we've seen views, likes, shares and comments increase more than 10 per cent. We're beginning to test a similar video viewing format for advertisers," said the post.

Starting this week, a small number of people will see video ads for the new film 'Divergent' begin playing as they come into view in their news feed on mobile and desktop, the post added.

Facebook Inc shares rose almost 2 per cent on Tuesday.

How will it work?

The videos will begin to play as they appear on the screen in the news feed without any sound. If the user wishes to view it he/she can turn the sound on else they can just scroll down. If the video is clicked or tapped and played in full screen, the sound for that video will play as well. Plus, at the end of the video, a carousel of two additional videos will appear, where more content from same marketers will be listed.

On mobile devices, videos will play in similar format but for users' convenience data plans won't be consumed for the download of these videos. All videos will have been downloaded in advance when the device was connected to Wi-Fi.

As of now videos from individuals, some select pages (entertainers or organisations) and Summit Entertainment's content for the film 'Divergent' will be playing in this format to a sample user base.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)