Both services offer to disable the auto-play, but unfortunately global and not only on a certain device or depending on network environment.

Hell, that 'd be a nice thing to have in HTML5 and OSes: allow the user to classify networks as "unrestricted" (fat DSL line, fibre,...) or "restricted" (mobile hotspots, tethering, metered hotspots), and expose this to websites so they can dynamically scale.

Android already supports this, but no other platform. A shame.

> Both services offer to disable the auto-play

Twitter specifically won't disable autoplay for everything:

The option text reads:

Videos will automatically play in timelines across the Twitter website. Regardless of your video autoplay setting, video, GIFs and Vines will always autoplay in Moments.

I removed Moments from the ui with Stylish the same day they launched it, and image/video previews entirely in the main timeline. The selectors you want to hide are ".expanding-stream-item:not(.open) .js-media-container", ".expanding-stream-item:not(.open) .js-adaptive-media-container", and ".moments"

The Facebook app for iOS lets you choose whether to auto play on wifi+mobile data, just wifi, or not at all. One app, but it's a start.

Could you explain some more? I'm looking for these settings on my iPhone 6S, but can't seem to locate them. Thanks.

Sorry, should've included that.

More > settings > account settings > videos and photos > autoplay.

Nice feature, but that placement leaves a lot to be desired.

Windows 8.1+ does at the OS level, I don't think it's exposed in the browser though.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-my/windows-8/metered-interne...

PAYPAL frikkin has full-screen video autoplaying on page load... of course one can go directly to .com/login but it's mind-boggling that a financial services provider for the masses thinks that this is acceptable.

I bet they did a study of 100 random users, and got more engagement with the videos. Just because we hate them doesn't mean our mom's and grandpas hate them.