Skip to main content

It’s been a while coming, but Facebook’s Android app now offers HD video uploads

facebook instant article subscription coming
Alaskla/123RF
It’s been a long time coming, but Facebook has finally launched high-definition uploads for users of its Android app.

While the capability has been available to iOS users for at least two years, it’s taken this long for it to arrive on Google’s mobile platform.

Spotted by AndroidPolice, users interested in uploading videos with improved definition simply need to hit Settings in the Facebook app and toggle the button for the option to “Upload videos in HD.”

The social networking giant hasn’t made any official announcement about the new feature, but AndroidPolice notes that it’s “already widely, if not completely, rolled out.”

Other features reportedly in testing or being steadily rolled out to users of Facebook’s Android app include picture-in-picture video. To enable it, Facebook will ask you to grant it permission to “draw over other apps.” After that, you’ll see the little picture-in-picture icon in the top left of the app’s video player. Tap on it and you’ll be able to “float” the video over other content on your display.

Some users are also being given the option to select the quality of video playback similar to how YouTube offers it, as well as download clips for later offline viewing, something Netflix recently launched.

Just to confirm, it seems the above features are currently being tested or rolled out, so if you’re not seeing them yet then standby, there’s a good chance they’ll land soon.

The new additions, while hardly major developments for the app, are nevertheless all part of Facebook’s ongoing drive to promote video on its platform and encourage its global base of 1.8 billion monthly active users to upload and view greater amounts of such content.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Twitter CEO claims platform had best day last week
A stylized composite of the Twitter logo.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted on Monday that despite the current fuss over Meta’s new and very similar Threads app, Twitter had its largest usage day last week.

Subtly including the name of Meta’s new app, which launched to great fanfare last Wednesday, Yaccarino did her best to sing Twitter’s praises, tweeting: “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread … but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.”

Read more
Meta brings cartoon avatars to video calls on Instagram and Messenger
Meta's cartoon avatars for Instagram and Messenger.

The pandemic was supposed to have made us all comfortable with video calls, but many folks still don’t particularly enjoy the process.

Having to think about what to wear, or how our hair looks, or even fretting about puffy eyes following another bout of hay fever can sometimes be a bit much, even more so if it’s an early-morning call and your brain is still in bed.

Read more
Twitter is now giving money to some of its creators
A lot of white Twitter logos against a blue background.

Some Twitter users are now earning money via ads in the replies to their tweets.

New Twitter owner Elon Musk announced the revenue-sharing program in February, and on Thursday some of those involved have been sharing details of their first payments.

Read more