New Delhi: Facebook looks all set to take on YouTube by enabling millions of its users to download videos and watch them later. In an email sent to page administrators and media partners, Facebook said it will start testing a feature for offline videos from July 11.
The social media giant said that downloading the video will only be available on the Facebook app, so as to protect copyrighted content. The company further added that the tests will be conducted in India, one of the markets where internet connectivity is a real issue.
"Starting July 11, 2016, we'll be rolling out the option for a small group of people to download videos to their Facebook app while they're online with good Internet connections, so they can then watch the video at any time, offline or online," the email states.
As the videos from all the pages will be available for download, Facebook has also given steps as to how you can opt for restrictions to the offline videos feature.
- Publishers will first have to can opt out at the Page level, which will prevent any video uploaded by that Page to download.
- For Page level go to settings tab in your page
- Go to the content distribution row
- There select ‘Prohibit downloading to Facebook’
Facebook has also ensured that the downloaded videos are stored in the Facebook app and cannot be shared or viewed in other applications.
YouTube also has somewhat similar restrictions on offline viewing. The videos on YouTube can be played offline only for up to 48 hours and after that you'll need to reconnect your device to the Internet so the app can check that the video is still available.
