Every video on Instagram is muted by default until the user taps on it to enable the sound but, according to TechCrunch report, the app will now enable sound for all subsequent videos once the sound is turned on.
The audio will remain turned on until another video is muted manually by the user or the app is turned off. This applies to all videos including ads.
The report has confirmed that Instagram is working on this feature and will be rolling it out to a broader set of users soon.
Autoplay sound on videos is found annoying by a majority of the users and with this simple toggle, Instagram seems to have found the right balance between autoplaying video sound without annoying users.
After receiving this update, whenever a user will open the Instagram app, the autoplay audio will be switched off by default.
But once they switch on the audio for one of the videos, every video on their news feed will autoplay with the sound on — for the rest of the session — until the user taps on the video and mutes the sound or exits the app.
While this feature might be useful when you’re at home or have your headphones on, users in public without headphones will need to be careful.
Since this feature is being rolled out for both normal videos from user accounts as well as video-based ads, both of which might reach more people and garner increased engagement due to the autoplaying audio. This could also boost ad spending on the platform.
Earlier this month, Facebook started testing out Instagram Stories on its largest social network platform. Stories on Facebook-owned Instagram are doing well and so Facebook might soon start showing Instagram stories.
Idoko Enenche
October 3, 2018