Facebook has launched a “save video offline” feature, much similar to YouTube’s offline on its Android app. The feature was first spotted by Android Police, where it claimed that one of its readers found the option on his Facebook app. This could mean that the option is rolling out across the world.
When the user sees a particular video and wishes to save it, he/she can click on the three dots on the right side and select “save video”. The videos are saved on the app and not on the device. It will not get downloaded to a user’s mobile device separately. This is mainly to protect the copyrighted content and Facebook is giving publishers the option of disabling download for their content.
Once saved, the videos can be watched offline without internet connection. They can be also removed. To remove, the user needs to press for a longer time on the video and select the appearing “unsave video” option. This watch videos offline feature can be useful in countries where connectivity is a hurdle.
According to Android Police, the ‘Save’ option is seen on versions 85 and 86 (beta) of the Facebook app for Android. Also, many past reports suggested that Facebook will start testing the option to download videos offline in India from July 11. Facebook has been focusing on video as it seeks to boost revenues and engagement on the site. The content publishers across the world are going all out to do more videos on Facebook, from live to quick 2 minute videos to share with users. It is logical to test the feature in India as the connectivity in various parts of the country is still low/unstable.
