Facebook will begin to test video downloads with a small percentage of its users in India on July 11. Videos will be downloaded through the Facebook app when using a stable Wi-Fi connection. They can then be viewed without having to wait for the video to buffer over slow mobile connections, creating a smoother experience and eliminating mobile data usage.
India is a suitable market to test video preloads in. The country is still emerging into the digital age and reliable 4G networks are few and far between. 2G speeds are more typical across the nation, leaving videos painfully slow to load. By allowing users to download content ahead of time, Facebook could increase overall engagement on its platform.
“People are coming online at a staggering rate in emerging markets and, in most cases, are doing so on mobile. We’re continuing to improve Facebook so it works seamlessly and easily for people in all parts of the world, regardless of their device,” Facebook said in a statement to VentureBeat.
“We’ve heard feedback that in markets like India, mobile data and internet connectivity is limited and many people struggle with poor video experiences. So we’re testing an option for people to download videos to Facebook while they’re offline on good Internet connections, to view the video at anytime, online or offline, without using extra mobile data.”
Videos will be stored securely on a user’s device. They will not be visible in the filesystem and can only be played through the Facebook app. This should prevent piracy of content created by publishers using Facebook Pages. Publications will be able to opt out of the feature via the provided Content Distribution settings.
The new feature will help to make Facebook a better rival to YouTube, the Google-owned video-streaming platform that Facebook is slowly evolving into. YouTube remains the default destination for most video viewers though. Facebook still has work to do before its social network becomes widely known as a place to watch a variety of videos.
Last month, Facebook executive Nicola Mendelsohn said she expects the platform to be “all video” within the next five years. “If I was having a bet, it’d be video, video, video,” Mendelsohn told Fortune, explaining she sees it as “the best way to tell stories in this world.” Facebook is betting big on rich media content, promoting videos above textual content in the News Feed and encouraging users to make Facebook Live livestreams.
This plan will only work if video is accessible to all of Facebook’s audience. By enabling video downloads and offline viewing, Facebook can step a little closer to the video-only future it envisions. The company hasn’t said how long the trial in India will last or when an international rollout can be expected. As with any pre-launch test, the feature could be dropped entirely when it concludes.
