Facebook's auto-playing videos in the news feed are tolerable - even enjoyable - because they're muted by default.

But that's about to change.

Going forward, videos will now automatically play with the sound turned on. Facebook recently announced the change in a blog post, saying that "as people watch more video on phones, they've come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on." It's been testing the sound-on feature and claims to have received "positive feedback", so it's decided to slowly roll it out to more users.

Previously, videos in the news feed were silent until you tapped them to listen. Now, unless your phone is on silent, sound will fade in and out as you scroll through videos on your news feed. If you hate that, no worries. We've figured out how to disable the new feature so that videos continue to play muted by default in your news feed.

Here's what you need to do. 

How to mute Facebook auto-play videos

If videos are still silent by default, or if you don't see any of the following settings listed in the instructions below, the update probably hasn't rolled out to your Facebook app. Be sure to update the app before tinkering around in Facebook settings.

iOS

  • Tap More (the button with three horizontal lines - near the bottom-right)
  • Tap Settings
  • Tap Account Settings
  • Tap on Sounds
  • Disable 'Videos in News Feed Start With Sound'

Android

  • Tap More (the button with three horizontal lines - near the top-right)
  • Tap App Settings
  • Disable 'Videos in News Feed Start With Sound'

Web

  • If you're on a desktop, you will need to mute your system, or you can use a Google Chrome extension such as AutoMute or Mute Tab.

Is that it?

Yep. Well, if you don't want any video to autoplay, which could spare you data allowance, follow the instructions on this FAQ page.