WASHINGTON — Have you noticed something different when viewing Twitter on your phone? Does your battery seem to be depleting faster than usual?
On Wednesday, Twitter rolled out autoplay of videos, GIFs and Vines that appear on your iPhone timeline, replacing the tap-and-play method of watching moving pictures. Twitter autoplay is also on web, with the Android app in the works.
Now, when you scroll through your Twitter timeline and see a video, it will begin to automatically play, while muted. If the content seems interesting, and you click on the video, it will keep playing in full-screen, and you’ll hear the audio.
Twitter says autoplay video increases engagement for the posted content — which is especially important for companies that advertise using Twitter video.
While some people appreciate not having to hit the Play icon, others are screaming “make it stop!”
The main complaints about Twitter’s autoplay video is that it chews up your phone’s data plan, and zaps your battery.
On any phone, to automatically play a video or GIF, the app needs to download the video first. That means, unless you’re on Wi-Fi, you’re paying for the video, whether you’re interested in it or not.
To make matters worse, downloading all those videos is a big drain on a phone’s battery.
Twitter isn’t the first to introduce autoplay video to mixed reviews — Facebook and Instagram both have the feature.
Here’s how to revert to the tap-and-play method of playing videos on Twitter:
