You are chatting with a friend or a loved one on WhatsApp. They send you a video they feel you ought to watch because it is germane to the discussion going on. And they want your opinion as soon as you are done watching the video.
You get the link to the file. You tap on it. Then you have to wait for the video to download before watching. If your network is slow, which happens quite a lot, then you’d have to wait for a long time for the video to download.
Your chat mate on the other hand is getting impatient. Harrying you to quit wasting time as if it is your fault the network is bad. It would even be worse if the file is very large.
You are nodding your head now in agreement I suppose. This is the life of all WhatsApp users especially in poor communities with bad or fluctuating networks.
WhatsApp just fixed that problem, in a manner of speaking. The update to WhatsApp now provides for streaming videos without having to download first. Just think YouTube plus an ability to download automatically.
Still on the heels of the latest update which introduced video calling to all WhatsApp users, a new and exciting video-related feature is coming as another update to the messaging app. “WhatsApp Video Streaming”
You know initially, whenever a friend sends you a video, you would wait till the video completes download before you watch it.
This new video feature comes with changes, you don’t have to waste so much time waiting for a video to download.
Although the feature isn’t like the Facebook Live or the newly introduced Instagram Live, but it sure has one remarkable thing. An experience related to Youtube streaming.
The new video streaming feature works in two ways. If you enabled media auto-downloading, once a video message comes, it would start downloading as usual and you can see the progress meter in the bottom left-hand corner of the preview above.
Now here’s how the feature helps a busy consumer like you. It lets you ignore lame and boring video messages of Kitty Cats sitting and looking cute. Meanwhile, you’re busy expecting a video of maybe “how to make money today“
Before the video even finishes downloading, you can decide to tap on the big play button in the middle and watch the video while it still downloads in the background. If the video completes download, you should see a video duration instead of the progress meter.
If you don’t allow auto-download videos when on a cellular connection or you disabled media auto-downloading, once a video message comes, you should see something different.
it would start downloading as usual and you can see the progress meter in the bottom left-hand corner of the preview above.
You will still see the big play button in the middle and be able to stream the video once it arrives, but the video will not download automatically. So if you care to download the video, you’ll have to tap the download button in the bottom left-hand corner instead.