The age of videos that play automatically is upon us. First it was Vine, then it was Instagram, and now Facebook's getting in the mix. A new update for the company's iOS app adds the feature, which will play videos automatically. So far that's limited to videos on profiles, verified people pages, and band pages. Facebook also isn't auto-playing videos from outside video hosts like YouTube. Before grabbing your pitchfork to storm Facebook's headquarters over slurping all your mobile data bandwidth, the feature can be set to work only over Wi-Fi, something that can be toggled in Facebook's settings. Facebook has confirmed to The Verge, however, that users won't be able to turn the feature off completely.

Can be set to only work on Wi-Fi

The feature has been in testing on both iOS and Android since September. And while handy for casual browsing, it's likely the precursor to what's expected to be an onslaught of new video advertising on Facebook's mobile apps. A report from Bloomberg back in July said just such a thing was on the way in the form of 15 second ad spots that will show up in News Feeds, much like static image posts do right now.