Facebook was announced new AI-powered features on Tuesday, designed to let users express themselves in more playful ways across the platform. Updates include animated profile pictures, photo retouching tools for Stories and Memories, and the ability to add animated backgrounds to text posts.
As Meta works to maintain Facebook’s relevance among younger users in its flagship app, it’s likely to bet that these new features will deliver a more personalized experience that will appeal to Gen Z.
The new profile animation feature applies motion effects to still photos, making the subject appear to wave, make a heart shape, or wear a virtual party hat. For best results, Facebook recommends using a clear photo of a single person looking at the camera. Photos can be taken directly from a user’s camera roll or from images already on the platform. The company also plans to add more animation options throughout the year.
Facebook is also beefing up its Stories — short photo and video posts that disappear after 24 hours — and Memories — a feature that resurfaces posts from the same date in previous years — with “Restyle,” a tool that uses Meta AI to recreate the look of images users have uploaded.
After uploading a photo to Stories or selecting a Memory to share, users can tap “Remake” and either enter a text-based prompt or choose from preset themes such as anime, illustrated, glowing, ethereal, and more. There are also options to adjust the mood, lighting and colors, and to switch to new scenes, such as a beach or a cityscape.
To spice up text posts, Facebook is gradually rolling out animated backgrounds. By clicking on the new rainbow “A” icon, users can choose from a variety of still and animated scenes, such as falling leaves or rolling ocean waves, to make their posts stand out in the feed. The company says seasonal backgrounds are coming soon.
With approximately 2.1 billion daily active users, Facebook remains a social media giant. However, in recent years, it has struggled to attract and retain a younger demographic.
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To address this, the platform embraced new technology, including artificial intelligence, and introduced a more youthful redesign. Other recent updates include a friends-only feed and the ability to use unique display names within Groups, similar to how Reddit handles usernames in its communities. The platform is also trying to make its poke feature — a way to tap another user on the shoulder, so to speak — relevant again by launching a new dedicated button on users’ profiles that notifies the recipient of a poke via notifications.
