Back in July, we got word that Facebook would be bringing video ads to users’ News Feeds in the near future. Well, that near future isn’t here just yet, and probably won’t be for a while. In the meantime, Facebook has started to lay the groundwork for its new video ad service.

Facebook announced Thursday afternoon that it would be changing how videos are watched on Facebook. Instead of simply seeing a thumbnail in your News Feed, videos will now start to automatically play when they appear.

Now, wait a minute – didn’t Zuckerberg say he was working to make video ads less annoying? Videos playing automatically in my News Feed sounds pretty annoying. Well, Facebook’s solution is to mute the video until you click on the video. Doing so will make it full screen and activate the audio.

Facebook says this change to video will help them create the best possible experience for users when it does finally roll it out to advertisers. At the moment, however, only videos from personal Facebook accounts, verified pages and musician pages will automatically play. Facebook will gradually roll it out to more pages as times goes on, and eventually will give birth to video ads.

Oh, and mobile users won’t be exempt from the new Facebook video either. They’ll start to see videos automatically play in the coming weeks. The good news is that you just have to scroll past it to make it stop playing so it shouldn’t cause any strain on your battery.

[Image: Facebook]