When watching videos on social media, how to minimize data

Just two of the numerous social media platforms that play videos automatically while you navigate through the items in your news feed are Facebook and Instagram. Although autoplay video has its benefits, you may want to disable it if you consider how much bandwidth most videos use, especially if you don't have access to a Wi-Fi network.

Your eyes may also be exposed to violent or harmful material, such as pornographic or improper videos of manslaughter or other acts of violence. Unfortunately, unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram's mobile apps for Android and iOS do not have a specific setting for disabling autoplay videos.

Instagram does not offer this option, but you may avoid excessive data usage by activating "Data Saver" in the app's settings.

As of this writing, the Instagram Data Saver function appears to have no effect on stopping videos from playing automatically, although it does lower the video quality. So let's get started with the Instagram app's Data Saver setting. Go to your profile (on your smartphone). "Settings" may be accessed by tapping the hamburger icon in the upper right. When you tap "Account," "Cellular Data Use" or "Mobile Data Use" may appear. Toggle "Use Less Data" to the on position now. You're done now.

Although Instagram's users wish they could turn off autoplay for all videos, they can at least do so when using mobile data.

Thankfully, those who detest autoplay may access the Instagram website instead, where it is not by default enabled. The only method to permanently turn off Instagram autoplay videos is this, which isn't great.

Although autoplay will be deactivated, bear in mind that you will still need to manually start a video by clicking on it when it is off. The settings for tablets and mobile devices cannot be stored, therefore you must adjust them independently.