It’s one of my pet peeves. I’ve never liked it.
What am I talking about?
Video autoplay.
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to go online to have video automatically play on their digital device.
And when it comes to LinkedIn, I learned the hard way.
After lunch one day, I visited LinkedIn from a link someone posted only to have loud audio from an embedded video play automatically in my LinkedIn feed.
Argh. How distracting!
Does Anyone Like Autoplay Videos?
Unfortunately, enabling video autoplay seems to be a trend.
When Facebook and Twitter enabled autoplay, users quickly shared their frustration.
I truly wonder if any website, social media channel, or application conducts usability tests on autoplay videos?
Imagine anyone saying,
Sure, I love to have video with loud audio start automatically every time I visit your website!
And when it’s happening while you’re on your smartphone, you can max out your data plan, and start incurring additional charges.
Now, it’s not only annoying.
It’s expensive.
How to Stop Videos from Autoplaying in LinkedIn
Like many other services that have desktop and mobile apps, there is no one option in your account to disable video autoplay everywhere.
You have to disable it on your LinkedIn account on the web as well as every LinkedIn app installed on other digital devices.
Disable Autoplay on Desktop
- Select the Me icon (the one with your avatar) from the menu bar on your LinkedIn homepage
- In the Account section, select Settings & Privacy
- Select Account preferences from the sidebar
- Scroll to the Autoplay videos option. Select Change to toggle the setting to No
- No need to look for a Save option, your choice will be automatically saved
Disable LinkedIn Video Autoplay on Android or iOS
- Select your profile picture
- Select Settings icon in your profile
- In Account preferences, select Site preferences
- Select Autoplay videos
- In the list of options, select Never Autoplay Videos
- Your choice will be saved automatically
Wrapping Up
While I’m frustrated autoplay videos is the default for many social media channels, including LinkedIn, I’m glad we can disable it.
Though I have to admit, I’d love to have to make the change only once and have it affect my LinkedIn account across all digital devices.
Have you disabled video autoplay on your LinkedIn account?
