How To Turn Off Autoplay On Twitter

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The recently introduced feature has not impressed many users, with many asking to be told how to switch it off.

Autoplay means that videos, Vines and gifs all play automatically as you scroll down your Twitter home feed, although sound will be muted unless you choose to click on a specific piece of content.

Twitter users appeal for an option to switch off autoplay

The new feature has left many Twitter users unimpressed, and a great number have tweeted to complain about it. For its part, Twitter claims that a testing period showed that autoplay generates more views and engagements for advertisers, but some users do not see any benefit to their Twitter experience.

Given the fact that the feature has been found to increase views, it seems likely that a lot more brand clips will be appearing in your Twitter feed. If you don’t want to be forced to watch them, turn it off using the following guide.

The feature has only been introduced for web and iOS users, so those of you on the Android platform do not have to worry. If you are in an area where data is expensive, such as in a foreign country, or suffer from bandwidth issues, Twitter claims that it will automatically shut down autoplay.

A how-to guide to return your Feed to normal

However, those iOS users who have noticed the new autoplay feature and want to switch it off should follow these steps. First of all, open the Twitter app and tap the ‘Settings’ symbol in the top right corner of the screen. Select ‘Settings’ and then the ‘Video autoplay’ menu, before hitting the ‘Never play videos automatically’ option.

For those of you on the web, be warned that not all users appear to have the ability to opt out of autoplay yet. If you do, log in to Twitter and click the profile logo before selecting ‘Settings.’ Select the ‘Account’ menu, scroll down to ‘Content’ and look for the Video Tweets option. Untick the ‘Video autoplay’ box and voila, your Feed will be back to normal.

Twitter is presumably attempting to drive advertising revenue by increasing exposure on its Feed, but it must be careful not to negatively impact the user experience.

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