Autoplaying videos have been the trend on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for the past few years now.
We took this possibly a step further and provided Autoplay Audio & Music Players for Musicians, Studios and Podcasters.
New autoplay policy across the web
The large corporations behind our browsers (Safari & Chrome) have decided to take control of mobile Autoplay and restrict the use of video autoplay with sound on mobile.
Audio autoplay on mobile – Friend, It was a pleasure to know you….
Audio autoplay will no longer be possible on mobile browsers, and on safari 11 desktop.
There is no expectation for Chrome and Firefox to follow on desktop as well.
But why man, Why ?!
1. Reduction of mobile bandwidth usage – good point… we all want to save a few pennies on our phone bill.
2. Reduce the use of ad blockers by users. More and more users nowadays use ad-blockers to block loud frightening Ads, which means that the unwritten agreement between website owners and visitors no longer apply. Content creators are losing revenue and advertisers find it increasingly hard to reach their target audience outside of Google and Facebook.
In a blog post a few months ago, Google Announced, “Starting in Chrome 64, autoplay will be allowed when either the media won’t play sound, or the user has indicated an interest in the media. This will allow autoplay to occur when users want media to play, and respect users’ wishes when they don’t.”
Likewise, Apple announced future policy changes for autoplay.
Which means that whether we like it or not, Autoplaying on mobile will now be silent in order to improve customer experience, prevent users from opting out to use ad blockers, and reduce the user’s bandwidth usage.
We at Cincopa ensure that Video autoplay will continue to work beautifully across all devices both loudly on desktop, and silently on mobile.
So where video autoplay should be used?
Well, everywhere you want to catch someone’s attention using a video and you only have a few precious seconds to do it. For example on a landing page as a promotional video or on your news site as a banner ad or a video article.