Facebook to start testing offline video feature in India on July 11

Facebook is reportedly about to start field testing its offline video feature to a small percentage of users in India. Tech Crunch reports that as of July 11, selected users will soon be able to download videos over a Wi-Fi connection and then watch them in the app later.

The downloaded videos will be securely stored within the Facebook app itself to avoid possible piracy and video content creators can individually opt out of the feature if they so choose. Those with the feature will be able to download video from any Facebook user or Page and view them on- or offline. It’s not yet clear how long videos will be kept for or whether they will be auto-purged on a periodic basis.

The next four billion

While this is great news for saving precious data and avoiding the boredom of dead-spots with poor signals, Facebook is still very much committed to getting everyone onto the internet. The OpenCellular wireless access platform was just announced today with grand plans to get the next four billion people on the internet that don’t currently have access.

Facebook is testing the wireless access points internally and will roll them out later in the summer, providing everything from 2G to LTE access for up to 1,500 people per box with a range of up to 10 kilometers. Again, while this a great thing, you know Facebook only wants another four billion people on the internet so it can show them ads for profit. Still, never look a gift horse in the mouth as they say.

Do you still suffer from dead-zones? Are you keen to download videos to watch later?