Facebook Launches Several Updates to News Feed Videos, Giving Users More Functionality

Facebook added immediate sound to News Feed videos, reformatted how they appear on mobile devices and is releasing a video app for TV, the company said in a Tuesday blog post. "Videos in News Feed have previously played silently -- you tap on a video to hear sound. As people watch more video on phones, they’ve come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on," wrote Engineering Manager Alex Li and Product Manager Dana Sittler. As users scroll through videos the sound fades in and out, but they can also disable the sound in their settings, they said. The staffers also said a larger format for vertical videos that "look better" is now available for mobile devices. They added that videos can also be minimized -- providing a "picture-in-picture view" that can be dragged to any corner of the screen -- as users scroll through the News Feed. Li and Sittler said a Facebook video app for TV will be available on the app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV for now. Last year, users could stream Facebook videos on their TV. With the new app, they "can watch videos shared by friends or Pages you follow, top live videos from around the world, and recommended videos based on your interests," the employees wrote.