YouTube Autoplay On Home Lands For All On Android, iOS

If Wikipedia has become notorious for being the Internet's information rabbit hole, YouTube is its video counterpart. Thanks to Google's famous algorithms, your YouTube app's home page can be filled with a nearly endless list of suggestions based on your search and viewing history. Not all of them, however, end up being what their cover images make them out to be. Fortunately, YouTube is taking the guesswork out of the equation by bringing its Autoplay on Home feature to both Android and iOS and for all user tiers.

Autoplay on Home is not actually new. YouTube Premium subscribers have enjoyed this feature since last year. As the name suggests, the YouTube app will start playing videos, or at least clips of them, the moment they come into view when you scroll through your app's home page.

Don't worry, though, it won't be as obnoxious as autoplaying ads or Facebook videos. The videos will all play in silence. Better yet, they will also have captions so you can get an even better idea what the video is really all about. YouTube is taking the opportunity to remind creators of the varied way they can add captions to their videos.

What you do have to worry, though, is the data usage Autoplay incurs. The app does have options whether to enable the feature only on Wi-Fi or both on Wi-Fi and cellular data. Of course, you can also disable it completely.

YouTube presents Autoplay on Home as a way for users to make better choices in what videos to actually watch. It also makes clickbait cover images less effective, protecting users wasting time, bandwidth, and even money. The feature will be rolling out to all users over the next few weeks so don't be surprised if it isn't yet available in your app. When it does, however, best to double check the settings to make sure you're not eating up precious cellular data.