Twitter Testing Autoplay

This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.

Oh dear, Twitter is testing autoplay. Autoplay is a move which Facebook made quite some time ago, and recently YouTube has also taken to autoplaying a new video when the one you are watching is finished. Starting today, the social network is going to start autoplaying video ads in your timeline and is rolling out limited tests for iPhone and iPad users in the U.S.

Some will see the full video autoplay in their feed and others will see a six second loop play in their feed. Autoplay is something that really gets on my nerves, if I want to watch a video then I am fully capable of finding and using the play button.

However, autoplay does make money and it would be a good way for Twitter to monetise the 30 second video feature they launched recently. There are some positives to be taken from autoplaying on Twitter though, the video won’t play any sound until the user clicks on it to view it in full screen, in the native feed it will simply play as muted.

The test will not include Vines posted on Twitter but it will apply to promoted videos from the social networks ad program. I have mentioned in the past that Twitter needs to find ways to generate more ad revenue and following in the footsteps of what Facebook has done is not a bad way to go considering that Facebook now has a firm ad revenue model in place.

Either way, it is a step in the right direction for Twitter monetisation and is bound to make advertisers happy, lets just hope that it won’t upset Twitter users too much.

About The Author

Mark is the founder of 60 Second Social media where he provides social media news and digital marketing analysis, he is also a proud father of his bearded dragon, Lola. You can follow him on Twitter here. You can also follow 60 Second Social on Twitter here. Or you can drop Mark an email at, daltomark@me.com