Facebook revamps mobile profiles with video profiles, temporary picture profiles, control settings

Facebook has announced three new features that will improve mobile profiles. The company says that the new changes are to enhance the way users express who they are and to give them more control of the content showcased on their profile.

“We believe these improvements to profile will give people more ways to connect and share with each other, and express themselves in meaningful ways,” the company states in a blog post.

Profile video feature

Facebook videos have become important to the company, both in offering content to users and as advertising revenue for businesses. Now the company is pushing its video ambitions to even greater heights by introducing profile videos.

“Profile pictures are not just static portraits. They represent what’s going in your life right now and what’s important to you,” the company notes.

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“Users will be able to film a short video clip and set it up as their profile. The video will be on a loop and will be visible to other users when they visit the user’s profile. Facebook is not completely getting rid of the still image profiles but rather trying out a new way to better let your personality shine through your profile picture.”

This means, more than the usual profile pictures users take when on a night out with friends, they can record a video of that night and have it as their profile.

Another interesting new feature is the ability top set a temporary profile picture that reverts back to the original profile after a specified time. Facebook suggests that the temporary picture is perfect to celebrate a wedding, favourite team winning a game or as a statement of solidarity. Users can also showcase the temporary content, like a walk by the beach, by setting the temporary profile pic to last as long as the walk will and after that the old profile picture will be visible.

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Better design for mobile profile

Facebook is overhauling the profile design for mobile. The changes will give the profile layout and the way it presents information a new look. The company says that the new profile design is more visually engaging.

In the new design, the profile picture and the new looping video move right to the center of the profile and are much bigger.

Better control settings

Users are thinking twice about what they reveal about themselves online and these new Facebook controls settings look to address this. With the settings, users will have more control of their profiles. Users can now easily check what information others can see about them and can easily change it.

All these changes are not rolling out to the billions of Facebook users as yet but are being tested to a small group of iPhone users in the UK and California. The company promises that the changes will roll out to more users soon.