There are times when you may want to prevent videos and GIFs from automatically playing in your social media feeds. This could be because you\u2019re trying to conserve cellular data, limit the addictiveness of these apps, or maintain better control over your viewing experience, as when a video is going viral that you don\u2019t wish to see. Whatever the reason might be, here are the steps to turn off autoplaying videos and GIFs on popular social media platforms.<\/p>\n
Facebook<\/p>\n
To turn off autoplay on Facebook, navigate to your profile picture icon, which appears in the top right corner of the desktop version or in the bottom navigation bar of the mobile app. Then, scroll down to \u201cSettings & Privacy,\u201d then select \u201cPreferences,\u201d where you\u2019ll find a menu option for \u201cMedia.\u201d Within that menu, there is an option to toggle video playback in your Feed and in Stories. Select the \u201cNever\u201d option.<\/p>\n
The quick path: Settings > Preferences > Media > Video Playback > Never<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n On the Instagram app, tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner. Once you\u2019re on your profile page, tap the menu icon in the upper right corner of your screen (it\u2019s the icon with three horizontal lines). Then, scroll to \u201cSettings and activity,\u201d then navigate to \u201cYour app and media,\u201d where you\u2019ll find \u201cMedia quality.\u201d From there, you can toggle on the option to \u201cUse less cellular data.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t as foolproof as a \u201cdon\u2019t autoplay content\u201d setting, but it will at least slow things down if you\u2019re off Wi-Fi. Instagram also won\u2019t autoplay sounds unless you click on a post with sound first.<\/p>\n The quick path: Profile > Settings and activity > Your app and media > Media quality > Use less cellular data<\/strong>.<\/p>\n X (Twitter)<\/p>\n On X, navigate to your profile picture in the top left to access the sidebar (on desktop, the sidebar is already visible). Then, select \u201cSettings and privacy\u201d \u2014 this will be in smaller font at the bottom of the menu on the app, and on mobile, you have to tap the three dots at the end of the list to bring up more options, which includes \u201cSettings and privacy.\u201d Next, scroll down to \u201cAccessibility, display, and languages,\u201d which will open another menu with a \u201cData usage\u201d option, where you can turn off \u201cVideo autoplay.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco You can be extra thorough by navigating back to \u201cSettings and privacy\u201d and selecting \u201cDisplay and sound.\u201d There, you can toggle off \u201cMedia previews.\u201d <\/p>\n The quick path: Settings and privacy > Accessibility, display, and languages > Data usage > Video autoplay<\/strong>, and Settings and privacy > Display and sound > Media previews<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Bluesky<\/p>\n Access Bluesky\u2019s menu by tapping the three-line icon in the upper left corner of the mobile app, then choose \u201cSettings\u201d at the bottom of the list. On desktop, this menu is accessible via the sidebar. Select \u201cContent and media,\u201d which will display options that include \u201cAutoplay videos and GIFs.\u201d Toggle this option off.<\/p>\n The quick path: Settings > Content and media > Autoplay videos and GIFs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Threads<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Meta\u2019s two-year-old microblogging platform does not yet offer a way to turn off autoplay. Hopefully, that\u2019s on the product roadmap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are times when you may want to prevent videos and GIFs from automatically playing in your social…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":217457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[98497,303,1066,563,158,2129,67,132,68,3893],"class_list":{"0":"post-217456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-bluesky","9":"tag-evergreens","10":"tag-facebook","11":"tag-instagram","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-threads","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-x"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115184169437718640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n