Twitter has introduced updates to include video autoplay on its timeline. Earlier, users needed to tap on the video play button to initiate video playback. Users will now be able to see native Twitter videos being directly played when it appears on the timeline. This feature will include Vines and GIFs too.
This will not be a compulsory update, though. Users who have high data charges or are on low bandwidth connectivity can choose to roll back to the previous tap-to-play settings. The new autoplay feature will help users to scroll through tweets in real time, thereby not facing a delay in the update duration of the Twitter news feed. The update will possibly appear like Instagram videos do, with muted videos autoplaying when they come in view, the audio getting activated with one tap.
The videos will begin to play without audio, and you will need to tap on it to play it with audio and in fullscreen mode. Alternatively, rotating your phone’s orientation will also unmute the audio and play the video in fullscreen mode. Baljeet Singh, Product Director of Twitter’s Media, TV and Video, blogged yesterday, “Over the past year we’ve made several changes to improve how you share, discover and watch videos, such as reducing the number of taps it takes to play a video, introducing a native mobile camera and bringing videos and Vines front and center in your timeline. Today, it’s become even easier to enjoy video on Twitter. Now native videos, Vines and GIFs will begin to play back automatically. So you can keep up with the action without missing a Tweet and get a better sense of what’s been shared instantly.”
The changes have already begun rolling out, with iOS and Twitter’s web platform becoming the first to receive this update, and Android updates to follow.