Facebook's new "location frames" are the answer to Snapchat's geofilters
A new Facebook feature is coming. But don't expect it to appear in your Facebook app before Christmas.
For the past few weeks, Facebook has been testing an unspecified camera experience on its main app in Ireland. The feature, which bears a rather striking resemblance to Snapchat, lets you take photos and share them privately with your friends in a separate messaging space on Facebook.
It looks like the social media giant is adopting a second Snapchat-style camera feature. The camera, which already lets you enhance selfies and videos with text, doodles, AI-powered filters, and animated faces or “masks,” is now getting an updated version that lets you add “location frames” to your photos.
Just like Snapchat's geofilters, users can create and submit visuals tied to specific locations, such as a neighborhood or landmark, which other users can add to their photos. Users can also submit more general designs with visuals that aren't tied to a specific location.
Facebook has been offering profile frames, which let you add small images to your profile photo. It's also testing the ability for users to create their own, and the feature will be rolling out to Colombia, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Users in those countries will be able to create and submit a profile frame (previously only page owners could do this) that can be used by anyone on Facebook.
Facebook's in-app camera is still limited to Ireland, but the new profile frames for users will be available to everyone.
Although Facebook describes the new camera as experimental, the latest features indicate that it is preparing to make it a reality.
