Skip to main content

It’s been a while coming, but Facebook’s Android app now offers HD video uploads

facebook instant article subscription coming
Alaskla/123RF
It’s been a long time coming, but Facebook has finally launched high-definition uploads for users of its Android app.

While the capability has been available to iOS users for at least two years, it’s taken this long for it to arrive on Google’s mobile platform.

Spotted by AndroidPolice, users interested in uploading videos with improved definition simply need to hit Settings in the Facebook app and toggle the button for the option to “Upload videos in HD.”

The social networking giant hasn’t made any official announcement about the new feature, but AndroidPolice notes that it’s “already widely, if not completely, rolled out.”

Other features reportedly in testing or being steadily rolled out to users of Facebook’s Android app include picture-in-picture video. To enable it, Facebook will ask you to grant it permission to “draw over other apps.” After that, you’ll see the little picture-in-picture icon in the top left of the app’s video player. Tap on it and you’ll be able to “float” the video over other content on your display.

Some users are also being given the option to select the quality of video playback similar to how YouTube offers it, as well as download clips for later offline viewing, something Netflix recently launched.

Just to confirm, it seems the above features are currently being tested or rolled out, so if you’re not seeing them yet then standby, there’s a good chance they’ll land soon.

The new additions, while hardly major developments for the app, are nevertheless all part of Facebook’s ongoing drive to promote video on its platform and encourage its global base of 1.8 billion monthly active users to upload and view greater amounts of such content.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to create multiple profiles on a Facebook account
A series of social media app icons on a colorful smartphone screen.

Facebook (and, by extension, Meta) are particular in the way that they allow users to create accounts and interact with their platform. Being the opposite of the typical anonymous service, Facebook sticks to the rule of one account per one person. However, Facebook allows its users to create multiple profiles that are all linked to one main Facebook account.

In much the same way as Japanese philosophy tells us we have three faces — one to show the world, one to show family, and one to show no one but ourselves — these profiles allow us to put a different 'face' out to different aspects or hobbies. One profile can keep tabs on your friends, while another goes hardcore into networking and selling tech on Facebook Marketplace.

Read more
How to set your Facebook Feed to show most recent posts
A smartphone with the Facebook app icon on it all on a white marble background.

Facebook's Feed is designed to recommend content you'd most likely want to see, and it's based on your Facebook activity, your connections, and the level of engagement a given post receives.

But sometimes you just want to see the latest Facebook posts. If that's you, it's important to know that you're not just stuck with Facebook's Feed algorithm. Sorting your Facebook Feed to show the most recent posts is a simple process:

Read more
How to go live on TikTok (and can you with under 1,000 followers?)
Tik Tok

It only takes a few steps to go live on TikTok and broadcast yourself to the world:

Touch the + button at the bottom of the screen.
Press the Live option under the record button.
Come up with a title for your live stream. 
Click Go Live to begin.

Read more