Facebook Bringing Profile Photos To Life With Mini Videos
MENLO PARK (CBS SF) -- Facebook is joining the GIF race by giving its billion daily users a new way to shape their online identities.
The social media giant announced Wednesday they've begun testing short, looping profile videos to make people's personal landing pages not only more visually stimulating, but more representative of who they are and what they care about.
"When more than 26 million people used our Celebrate Pride filter, it was more apparent than ever that people use their profile picture to show who they are— even if it's just for a moment in time," Facebook product managers Aigerim Shorman and Tony Hsieh said. "Profile pictures are not just static portraits. They represent what's going in your life right now and what's important to you, and we want to give people the tools to better express themselves in this way."
There's no specific date yet when Facebook will make the profile video option available to its users.
Sharing short videos and GIFS is a growing trend among social media platforms, starting with Twitter-owned Vine and Instagram, which Facebook acquired in 2012.