Facebook has today announced that it is updating its mobile platform with new mobile-friendly features for its profiles. According to the social giant, people visit Facebook profiles more than four billion times a day, so the technical staff at Facebook is trying to help people make the best of their online identities. Three main features have been officially unveiled by the social networking website today: Profile Video, more control over your profile and a new revamped mobile user interface.
First things first, now you will be able to set your Facebook avatar as a 7-second looping video. So, instead of the old boring snapshots, you can now show off exciting parts of your life on your profile to anyone who visits it. The feature is somewhat similar to Twitter’s Vine or Apple’s Live Photos, the only difference is that it deals with your visible online avatar.
Facebook has also stated that you will now get more and better controls over your profile. While you were always able to control who could see the information you showcase on your profile, Facebook has now added a new customizable space at the top of your profile which will can help you see what others can view. You can use this space to provide a short bio, some of your achievements, your educations or whatever you please. The blog post announcing the feature reads:
[…] You can curate this space— and convey what you want people to know about you— by changing the visibility of the fields that show up here. You can also fill out the new, one-line ‘Bio’ field: select certain public About fields like work and education details to appear there; and even visually highlight what’s important to you by choosing up to five Featured Photos to be showcased at the top of your profile. While this space is visible to anyone who visits your profile, you have full control of what information appears here.
The third highlight is that the mobile user interface of the Facebook app is getting a complete revamp. Facebook believes that this new layout will be more appealing and will allow you to better present yourself to others online. The profile picture/video will now be centered, instead of being to the left, and will be significantly larger in size.
These changes were spotted by a few people in mid-July but we hadn’t received any news from the big guys themselves. The features are currently rolling out for a small number of iPhone users in the UK and California, but Facebook says that the global roll out will soon follow.
