Facebook’s new ‘floating video’ feature lets you keep scrolling through content

By Trevor Mogg Published July 7, 2015

Mark Zuckerberg said last year that Facebook will be “mostly video” by 2019.

Looks like he means it. The man behind the world’s biggest social network has been placing ever greater emphasis on moving pictures, with acquisitions and new features shifting Facebook toward being a more video-centric platform.

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The company’s latest move is to try out a button that causes videos to pop out from the News Feed, allowing you to continue scrolling through content as the video floats – and carries on playing – to one side.

The button for desktop, which was spotted by TheNextWeb, is reportedly appearing for a limited number of users as Facebook tests its functionality and gauges user response. It sits between the video player’s HD and Expand buttons. Tap on it and the video reduces in size and floats to the side of the feed.

You can then pause and play the video at the same time as looking through your News Feed, and also like or share it with a single tap. In addition, you can drag the video around the screen and leave it in a spot that best suits you.

The feature, which is similar to one YouTube rolled out for mobile nearly two years ago and also Tumblr’s pop-out feature that landed for desktop back in October, could come in handy for time-pressed users looking to get more done, and is likely to encourage more video views, which would certainly go down well with Zuck and co.

Telepathy

And once Facebook’s nailed video, it’ll be moving onto telepathy, apparently.

Commenting last week during a special Q&A session with users, Zuckerberg said he believes technology is on the way which’ll allow us to send an emotion or feeling to another person just by thinking about it.

He quite rightly calls it “the ultimate communication technology,” and says that one day “we’ll have the power to share our full sensory and emotional experience with people whenever we’d like….you’ll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too.”

In the meantime, we’ll try to get used to using this new “floating video” feature….

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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