Facebook has repeatedly stated that, eventually, the majority of the content on their platform will be video. And evidently, that shift also extends to the presentation of their own products and Pages.
This week, several users have noticed that Facebook's testing out video cover images on some Pages.
As you can see, the short video loops, like a GIF, and plays without sound (though there is a volume slider which appears at the right when you hover over the image).
Facebook has confirmed the test, providing the following statement:
"We recently started testing the ability on desktop to upload a video as the Page cover. Once a cover video has been created, video will render when people visit the Page.
By making cover video available, we want to help you create more engaging interactions and drive more rich experience for your audience by letting you spotlight your creative content in one of the most prominent spaces: your Page cover.
This feature is still in early testing, but we expect it to roll out more widely soon."
Users have been requesting such an update for some time, providing them with another way to create attention-grabbing profiles - and certainly the video background does that. And given Facebook's been able to provide looping videos for profile pictures since 2015, you'd think the back-end elements would already be in place, it would more be a matter of network capacity and potential lag, which is becoming less of a concern every day.
Facebook's looping profile videos
Video covers look to provide a similar functionality to the profile videos, and given the current focus on video, the option - if released - will no doubt prove popular. There's no word from Facebook as to whether the tool will be made available to more users, or when we might be able to try it out for ourselves.
But if this example is anything to go by, it's certainly worth consideration.
We'll provide an update if/when we receive more information.
UPDATE (5/4): We now have size and length specs for the new video cover images, with Social Media Today contributor Moshe Isaacian sharing the details on Twitter.
That's much longer than the seven seconds you have available for video profile images, and should provide significant capacity for businesses to make best use of the option. Of course, there must also be some load time consideration to go with that length, but no doubt this, also, is part of Facebook's test.