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MANILA, Philippines – Facebook is testing a new feature that will allow users to watch videos even without an internet connection, TechCrunch reported.
The feature, known as “Instant Videos”, downloads videos while on a Wi-Fi connection and later allowing them to watch when on-the-go, or whenever they’re without mobile data connection.
Facebook told TechCrunch that the currently in-testing feature is available only to a small percentage of users on Android, and that the goal is to get users, who are on a data budget, to still be able to watch videos.
The Next Web’s Matt Navara was able to post a screenshot of the feature sent in by a certain Devesh Logendran:
Facebook Instant Videos coming soon?
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) September 11, 2017
h/t Devesh Logendran pic.twitter.com/rNZYkbeL2r
A lightning icon indicates that a video is an offline-viewable Instant Video.
Facebook has recently been making a push to be the most dominant player in online videos, earmarking money to develop original content and tweaking their content-serving algorithm for users who are on a mobile data connection. Offline-viewable videos may be a huge step for Facebook in terms of securing developing markets where mobile data connections can be expensive or unreliable.
As online video becomes more pervasive in people’s media diets, the new Facebook feature may help lure more viewers away from competitors such as YouTube and Twitter.
Facebook has yet to reveal how it will choose videos for offline caching. YouTube and Netflix have similar features for offline video watching, but are mostly user-initiated.
Based on current reports, Facebook’s Instant Videos appear to be a more automated form of caching, presumably relying on an algorithm to select the video depending on the user. – Rappler.com
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