Facebook Blog

Introducing New Apps for Timeline

2012-01-18T17:26:53-08:00

New timeline apps are now available from Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others. You can now enhance your timeline with apps that help you tell your story, whether you love to cook, eat, travel, run, or review movies.

Apps bring your timeline to life

Once you've added an app, you can begin updating your timeline with your activities as they happen. For example, if you love design, shopping or fashion, you can add the Pinterest or Pose apps to make your favorite items part of your timeline.

If you love to cook, you can add the Foodily app to your timeline and share your latest dishes. If your friends have added the Foodily app, you can discover new recipes with each other, as you'll see their updates in the ticker and their timeline, and possibly News Feed.

If you're a traveler, you can add the Gogobot and TripAdvisor apps to bring a virtual passport to your timeline, and show your friends where you've been and share tips about your favorite spots from around the world.

Soon, there will be apps for all types of interests, as more apps will launch over time. Whether you love snowboarding, gardening, hiking, or knitting, or something else, there will be an app for you.

How to add apps to your timeline

Timeline apps are for the activities you want to share with friends. You choose when to add an app, and you decide who can see it. After you've added an app, you can always remove posts directly from timeline, and you can also edit your settings from your personal Activity Log.

You and your friends can start adding apps to your timeline today to discover new recipes, places to go, events to attend, and more.

Carl Sjogreen, director of platform, can't wait to add more apps to his timeline.

Listen to Music With Your Friends

2012-01-12T10:00:00-08:00

Music is one of the most powerful and fun ways to connect. Whether it's at a concert with a bunch of people or on a long car ride with your best buddy, we love listening to music with our friends. But what if you could listen to music with your friends when you're alone, like at work, at home or on the go?

Today, with music services on Facebook, there's a new way to listen with friends. This feature lets you listen along with any of your friends who are currently listening to music. You can also listen together in a group while one of your friends plays DJ.

You can listen to the same song, at the exact same time—so when your favorite vocal part comes in you can experience it together, just like when you're jamming out at a performance or dance club.

How It Works

Look for the music note in the chat sidebar to see which of your friends are listening to music. To listen with a friend, hover over their name, and click the Listen With button. The music will play through the service your friend is using.

When a new song plays, you'll come along for the ride, discovering new music while your friend DJs for you.

You'll also have the option to chat about what you're listening to. As other people start listening along, they'll join the party in a group chat.

You can control who you're listening along with through your settings. Learn more here.

Rollout Starts Today

Now, you can experience enjoying music together with your friends no matter where you are. This feature will start rolling out over the next few weeks. We hope you enjoy listening with friends!

Alexandre Roche, a Product Designer at Facebook, is listening to "Stop Your Hate" by Maceo Plex - with Lincoln Hochberg and 2 others.

Timeline: Now Available on Mobile

2011-12-15T10:00:08-08:00

UPDATE on Sunday, December 18th 2011: We're excited to announce that timeline is now available on Facebook for iOS version 4.1, for iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Originally Published on Thursday, December 15, 2011: Timeline gives you an easy way to see the things you've shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place. In addition to making timeline available on the web , today we're also launching timeline on Android and m.facebook.com.

Mobile timeline starts with your unique cover photo. As you scroll down, you'll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the day you were born. Photo albums and other posts are horizontally swipeable, so you can quickly view multiple photos or posts inline without leaving timeline. You can also swipe through the views at the top of your timeline to navigate to your map, photos, subscribers and more.

Making stories more visual

Your posts now appear in several different ways on your mobile timeline. The photos you share are bigger, and friends you're with and places you visit appear on a map.

Available on m.facebook.com and Android

Mobile timeline is now available on touch devices using m.facebook.com, and Facebook for Android (version 1.8.1).

To learn more about timeline, visit facebook.com/about/timeline.

Mick Johnson, Facebook product manager, is looking forward to traveling back in time, on his phone.

Timeline: Now Available Worldwide

2011-12-15T04:30:56-08:00

UPDATE on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012:

Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.

You can learn more about these new features by taking the quick tour available at the top of your timeline. If you want to get timeline now, go to the Introducing Timeline page and click "Get Timeline." Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your home page.

Orginially published on Thursday, December 15th, 2011: We recently announced our plans to introduce Facebook Timeline, an entirely new kind of profile.

Timeline gives you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments. It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.

Starting today, timeline is now available everywhere. Here are some tips to help you get started.

7-day preview period

When you upgrade to timeline, you'll have seven days to review everything that appears on your timeline before anyone else can see it. You can also choose to publish your timeline at any time during the review period. If you decide to wait, your timeline will go live automatically after seven days. Your new timeline will replace your profile, but all your stories and photos will still be there.

If you want to see how your timeline appears to other people, click the gear menu at the top of your timeline, and select "View As." You can choose to see how your timeline appears to a specific friend or the public.

Feature or hide stories

As you explore your timeline, you may see stories that you want to feature, like your graduation or the day you bought your first car. There might also be stuff that you want to remove or hide from your timeline.

To feature something on your timeline, roll over the story and click the star to expand it to two columns. Or you can click the pencil to hide, delete or edit a post.

Use the privacy dropdown to adjust who can see any of your posts. You can even select "Only Me" for posts you want to keep but don't want others to see.

See all your activity

With timeline, now you have access to a new tool called Activity Log. Your activity log is a place where you can review all your posts and activity, from today back to when you first started using Facebook. Only you can see your activity log.

You'll see two dropdown menus next to each story in your activity log. The first lets you see and adjust the privacy of a post. The second lets you decide if you want the post to appear on your timeline. You can feature, hide or delete any of your posts.

To quickly find a certain type of story, click the "All" dropdown at the top of your activity log and select what you're looking for. For example, you can choose to see only photos or posts from apps.

Get timeline today

To get timeline, simply go to the Introducing Timeline page and click "Get Timeline." Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your profile.

Starting today, timeline will also be available on Android and m.facebook.com.

We hope you enjoy exploring what's on your timeline, and adding new stories and experiences. We'll be continuing to improve timeline over the next few months. If you have any feedback, please let us know.

Paul, an engineering manager on the Timeline team, is excited to feature his story about getting engaged.

A Faster Facebook for Android

2011-12-07T11:30:01-08:00

Today we're launching an updated Facebook app for Android. It's now quicker and easier to view photos, get messages and navigate around the app.

Photos get better

Photos and albums are up to two times faster than the previous Android app. It's also easier to share photos, view comments and edit captions on the go.

View photos with tags, comments and likes

Messages on top

Your messages and notifications are now at the top of your screen. You can respond to friends and stay updated without leaving the page you're on.

Get notifications and messages at the top of every screen

Menu on the side

You can quickly access your News Feed, Groups, games and apps from the new left-hand menu. The features you use most are now at your fingertips.

Use the left-hand menu to get around

Get the App

Facebook for Android is available on Android Market. We're excited about the new app, and we hope you check it out.

Like My Status: Memology 2011

2011-12-06T21:01:05-08:00

Each year, millions of people post on Facebook to share what's important to them, discuss world events, or just catch up with friends. With more than 800 million people connected around the globe on Facebook, news about the world's triumphs and tragedies spreads fast.

Memology takes the pulse of this global community by comparing this year's status updates to last year's, unearthing the most popular topics and cultural trends - or memes - emerging on Facebook. Whether it's hmu, lms or tbh, each year brings a new set of three letter acronyms that go viral.

To see memes for countries around the world, along with top trending musicians, actors and songs on Facebook, check out the special tab on the Facebook Page.

Top Global Topics on Facebook

The year's biggest sports event came in February, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers to win Super Bowl XLV. Not surprisingly, Packers fans were particularly active around each post-season match (represented by the spikes on the chart), culminating in their victory on February 6.

Charlie Sheen captured people's attention in March, when his trademark "winning," "tiger blood" and "goddesses" memes took off.

Later that month, the United Nations military operations started in Libya, prompting a surge in status updates mentioning "Libya" and "Gaddafi."

The marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William dominated the conversation in April, with mentions of the phrase "Royal Wedding" shooting up nearly 600-fold in the days running up to their wedding day.

Days later, the death of Osama bin Laden became the most talked about event on Facebook for 2011. On May 1, almost 10 percent of all status updates in English mentioned news of his death.

A couple months later, talk of the trial of Casey Anthony, a Florida woman who was accused of murdering her daughter Caylee Anthony, reached fever pitch. Status updates mentioning Caylee Anthony peaked on July 5, the day her mother was acquitted.

In August, Hurricane Irene struck the east coast of the United States, with people taking to Facebook to get the latest emergency warnings and to make sure their friends and family were safe.

The year was also marked by outpourings of sadness and memories after the deaths of Amy Winehouse in July and Steve Jobs in October.

Finally, the launch of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (mw3) was the big event of November, marking the biggest entertainment launch of all time.

Memes for 2011

As well as identifying the top ten global topics on Facebook, we also dug through the data to identify the top trending cultural phenomena for the year.

Planking

Planking was the flash in the pan meme on Facebook for 2011. Status updates mentioning planking, where people lie face down in unusual locations, exploded in May. That happened after Max Key, the son of New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, posted a Facebook photo of himself planking in the family lounge with his father in the background.

The fad quickly lost steam, then rebounded in July when celebrities such as Tom Green, Chris Brown and Katy Perry drew more attention to it. But even they couldn't stem planking's eventual decline.

lms for a tbh

2011 was also the year of "lms" and "tbh."

"lms," short for "like my status" is an invitation to Facebook friends to like something ("lms if u find this funny!")

A new use of "lms" emerged this year as a way to interact with friends on Facebook. "lms and I'll post your best feature" asks friends to like a status and get a response in the comments. This catapulted "lms" to become the fastest-growing meme of 2011.

"tbh" or "to be honest'' began as a way to add sincerity at the beginning or end of a statement - like "tbh i completely agree with you."

"tbh" soon went viral. Now it's often used in conjunction with "lms" to give honest feedback about friends - the most iconic status update for 2011 was "lms for a tbh. "

While the growth of these two acronyms is slowing, they're likely to remain part of the Facebook lexicon in 2012.

Skrillex

2011 was also the rise of music producer Skrillex. Although Skrillex has been around for several years, his 2011 tour, a collaboration with Korn, and record label launch prompted a 76-fold increase in the number of people mentioning him in their status updates on Facebook.

Explore the top status trends by country, fastest growing Pages and most popular media of 2011 on the Facebook Page.

Memology 2011 was developed by Data Scientists Jonathan Chang and Eytan Bakshy, who hope you like their statuses in 2012.

Our Commitment to the Facebook Community

2011-11-29T09:39:14-08:00

I founded Facebook on the idea that people want to share and connect with people in their lives, but to do this everyone needs complete control over who they share with at all times.

This idea has been the core of Facebook since day one. When I built the first version of Facebook, almost nobody I knew wanted a public page on the internet. That seemed scary. But as long as they could make their page private, they felt safe sharing with their friends online. Control was key. With Facebook, for the first time, people had the tools they needed to do this. That's how Facebook became the world's biggest community online. We made it easy for people to feel comfortable sharing things about their real lives.

We've added many new tools since then: sharing photos, creating groups, commenting on and liking your friends' posts and recently even listening to music or watching videos together. With each new tool, we've added new privacy controls to ensure that you continue to have complete control over who sees everything you share. Because of these tools and controls, most people share many more things today than they did a few years ago.

Overall, I think we have a good history of providing transparency and control over who can see your information.

That said, I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes. In particular, I think that a small number of high profile mistakes, like Beacon four years ago and poor execution as we transitioned our privacy model two years ago, have often overshadowed much of the good work we've done.

I also understand that many people are just naturally skeptical of what it means for hundreds of millions of people to share so much personal information online, especially using any one service. Even if our record on privacy were perfect, I think many people would still rightfully question how their information was protected. It's important for people to think about this, and not one day goes by when I don't think about what it means for us to be the stewards of this community and their trust.

Facebook has always been committed to being transparent about the information you have stored with us – and we have led the internet in building tools to give people the ability to see and control what they share.

But we can also always do better. I'm committed to making Facebook the leader in transparency and control around privacy.

As we have grown, we have tried our best to listen closely to the people who use Facebook. We also work with regulators, advocates and experts to inform our privacy practices and policies. Recently, the US Federal Trade Commission established agreements with Google and Twitter that are helping to shape new privacy standards for our industry. Today, the FTC announced a similar agreement with Facebook. These agreements create a framework for how companies should approach privacy in the United States and around the world.

For Facebook, this means we're making a clear and formal long-term commitment to do the things we've always tried to do and planned to keep doing -- giving you tools to control who can see your information and then making sure only those people you intend can see it.

In the last 18 months alone, we've announced more than 20 new tools and resources designed to give you more control over your Facebook experience. Some of the things these include are:

• An easier way to select your audience when making a new post

• Inline privacy controls on all your existing posts

• The ability to review tags made by others before they appear on your profile

• Friend lists that are easier to create and that maintain themselves automatically

• A new groups product for sharing with smaller sets of people

• A tool to view your profile as someone else would see it

• Tools to ensure your information stays secure like double login approval

• Mobile versions of your privacy controls

• An easy way to download all your Facebook data

• A new apps dashboard to control what your apps can access

• A new app permission dialog that gives you clear control over what an app can do anytime you add one

• Many more privacy education resources

As a matter of fact, privacy is so deeply embedded in all of the development we do that every day tens of thousands of servers worth of computational resources are consumed checking to make sure that on any webpage we serve, that you have access to see each of the sometimes hundreds or even thousands of individual pieces of information that come together to form a Facebook page. This includes everything from every post on a page to every tag in those posts to every mutual friend shown when you hover over a person's name. We do privacy access checks literally tens of billions of times each day to ensure we're enforcing that only the people you want see your content. These privacy principles are written very deeply into our code.

Even before the agreement announced by the FTC today, Facebook had already proactively addressed many of the concerns the FTC raised. For example, their complaint to us mentioned our Verified Apps Program, which we canceled almost two years ago in December 2009. The same complaint also mentions cases where advertisers inadvertently received the ID numbers of some users in referrer URLs. We fixed that problem over a year ago in May 2010.

In addition to these product changes, the FTC also recommended improvements to our internal processes. We've embraced these ideas, too, by agreeing to improve and formalize the way we do privacy review as part of our ongoing product development process. As part of this, we will establish a biennial independent audit of our privacy practices to ensure we're living up to the commitments we make.

Even further, effective today I am creating two new corporate officer roles to make sure our commitments will be reflected in what we do internally -- in the development of our products and the security of our systems -- and externally -- in the way we work collaboratively with regulators, government agencies and privacy groups from around the world:

- Erin Egan will become Chief Privacy Officer, Policy. Erin recently joined Facebook after serving as a partner and co-chair of the global privacy and data security practice of Covington & Burling, the respected international law firm. Throughout her career, Erin has been deeply involved in legislative and regulatory efforts to address privacy, data security, spam, spyware and other consumer protection issues. Erin will lead our engagement in the global public discourse and debate about online privacy and ensure that feedback from regulators, legislators, experts and academics from around the world is incorporated into Facebook's practices and policies.

- Michael Richter will become Chief Privacy Officer, Products. Michael is currently Facebook's Chief Privacy Counsel on our legal team. In his new role, Michael will join our product organization to expand, improve and formalize our existing program of internal privacy review. He and his team will work to ensure that our principles of user control, privacy by design and transparency are integrated consistently into both Facebook's product development process and our products themselves.

These two positions will further strengthen the processes that ensure that privacy control is built into our products and policies. I'm proud to have two such strong individuals with so much privacy expertise serving in these roles.

Today's announcement formalizes our commitment to providing you with control over your privacy and sharing -- and it also provides protection to ensure that your information is only shared in the way you intend. As the founder and CEO of Facebook, I look forward to working with the Commission as we implement this agreement. It is my hope that this agreement makes it clear that Facebook is the leader when it comes to offering people control over the information they share online.

Finally, I also want to reaffirm the commitment I made when I first launched Facebook. We will serve you as best we can and work every day to provide you with the best tools for you to share with each other and the world. We will continue to improve the service, build new ways for you to share and offer new ways to protect you and your information better than any other company in the world.

Bigger, Faster Photos

2011-11-16T09:41:31-08:00

UPDATE on Wednesday, November 16th, 2011: We're excited to announce an update to Photos that makes it faster and easier to share photos on Facebook. Now, when you upload photos to an album, you can see each photo as it uploads and watch the upload progress in real-time. In addition, we've made some improvements so you don't have to wait for the album to finish uploading to start adding details and stories. Now, you can start adding captions and location details to each of your photos right away. You can also add an album title, description, and location at the top of the uploader. Just as before, you can choose who can see your album before you post and adjust your selection later if you change your mind. You can also continue to track how long your upload will take.

If you don't see this version of the Photos uploader yet, you can expect to see it over the coming weeks as the rollout continues.

Originally Published on Friday, August 26, 2011: With over 250 million photos uploaded each day, sharing pictures is one of the most popular activities on Facebook. We are constantly working on making Facebook Photos better and today we're introducing some improvements to the way you experience photos.

Bigger Photos, Faster Loading

Now, the photos you share on Facebook are bigger (720 pixels to 960 pixels) and load twice as fast, giving you quicker access to more detailed images. Photos you've already uploaded to your profile will also be displayed at this higher resolution.

Focus on the Photo

After we launched the first version of the photo viewer earlier this year, we received feedback from many of you and have made changes based on it. Today, we are rolling out a more streamlined photo viewer that features a cleaner interface that makes it even easier to enjoy your photos. The light box is now set against a simple white background that puts more of the focus on the photo, and less on the surrounding frame.

These new features will be gradually rolling out to everyone over the next few days.

Interesting News, Any Time You Visit

2011-11-09T13:59:57-08:00

UPDATE on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011: Now you have a new way of sorting your News Feed: most recent stories first. You can also continue to view highlighted stories first, followed by recent stories, like what you see today. If you don't have the updates to News Feed yet, you can expect to see them over the coming weeks as the rollout continues.

Originally Published on Tuesday, September 20, 2011: When you visit Facebook, you should see the things you're most interested in, like status updates from your family and closest friends. Last week, we announced improvements to Friend Lists and a new Subscribe button to help you see more of what you care about, and less of what you don't.

But it's not just the people you hear from that make your News Feed interesting. It also matters how much you visit Facebook. If you haven't returned in a week, you may want to see a summary of top stories first. If you've already visited several times that day, you probably care more about recent news.

Starting today, it will be easier to keep up with the people in your life no matter how frequently or infrequently you're on Facebook.

News Feed: See What Matters at the Top

When you pick up a newspaper after not reading it for a week, the front page quickly clues you into the most interesting stories. In the past, News Feed hasn't worked like that. Updates slide down in chronological order so it's tough to zero in on what matters most.

Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won't have to worry about missing important stuff. All your news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top. If you haven't visited Facebook for a while, the first things you'll see are top photos and statuses posted while you've been away. They're marked with an easy-to-spot blue corner.

If you check Facebook more frequently, you'll see the most recent stories first. Photos will also be bigger and easier to enjoy while you're scrolling through.

Ticker: Join Friends in Real-Time

News Feed often has a time lag. Usually when you're on Facebook, a lot of your friends are too. Until now, there hasn't been an easy way to see and chat with your friends about photos, articles, and other things they're posting in real-time. The new ticker helps you do just that.

Ticker shows you the same stuff you were already seeing on Facebook, but it brings your conversations to life by displaying updates instantaneously. Now when a friend comments, asks a question or shares something like a check in, you'll be able to join the conversation right away. Click on anything in ticker to see the full story and chime in – without losing your place.

If you have a wider screen, slide the grey bar between ticker and chat up or down to adjust how many updates you see at a time. To control who can see your updates anywhere on Facebook, including in ticker and News Feed, adjust your sharing control or apps settings.

We hope these improvements make your conversations on Facebook more lively, no matter how often you visit. For tips about how to use improved Friend Lists, and the new Subscribe button right from News Feed, check out this video.

Mark Tonkelowitz, an engineering manager at Facebook, looks forward to seeing conversations about improved News Feed in his ticker.

A Faster Way to Message on Mobile

2011-10-19T13:31:13-07:00

UPDATE on Wednesday, October 19, 2011: We're excited to announce an update to Facebook Messenger. In this version, we've included a bunch of new features and performance improvements designed to make your messaging experience even better.

Now you can see who's online and who's on mobile, and know when the other person is typing. It's also easier to send messages to the people you message most.

With this update, the app is now available for BlackBerry in addition to iPhone (including iOS 5) and Android. We've also added support for 22 new languages for Android, and 12 new languages for iPhone.

Messenger for BlackBerry

If you haven't tried Messenger yet, you can get the app today or watch this video to see Messenger in action:

Originally Published on Tuesday, August 9, 2011:

More and more of us rely on our phones to send and receive messages. But it isn't always easy to know the best way to reach someone on their phone. Should you send an email or text? Which will they check first? Did they even get your last message?

We think messaging should be easier than that. You should be able to write a message, click "Send" and know that you will reach the person right away.

So today, we're introducing Messenger, a new mobile app that simplifies how messaging works, and gives you a faster way to message friends and small groups.

A whole new app

Messenger is a separate app, so it only takes one click to get to your messages or send a new one. Messages are delivered through notifications and texts, so your friends are more likely to get them right away.

You can use Messenger to reach all of your friends -- whether they're on Facebook or in your phone contacts. All you have to do is type the person's name.

The Messenger app is an extension of Facebook messages, so all your conversations are in one place, including your texts, chats, emails and messages. Whether you're on your phone or on the web, you can see the full history of all your messages.

Make plans with groups

When you're on the go, coordinating a bunch of people can be tricky, especially if plans change at the last minute. With Messenger, you can quickly start a group conversation and message everyone at once.

If you choose to add your location, the people you're messaging with can easily find each other on the map. You can also attach photos, so everyone else can see and comment on what you're looking at.

How to get Messenger

Messenger will be available for both iPhone and Android starting today. Just search for "Facebook Messenger" in your phone's app store, or get a link to the app texted to your phone.

Lucy Zhang, Beluga Co-founder and Facebook Engineer, looks forward to never having a hard time coordinating movie night again.