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Facebook is rolling out new features that may make the way you use Facebook a bit different in the future. You may have seen your friends use these features and wondered what they are, or have even used them yourself.
Collages and Live Video are new ways to share with others what’s going on in your life. GIFs are now available in Facebook Messenger without needing an app.
Photo Collages
Want to share a bunch of photos with your Facebook friends? Sharing photos is easier now with Collages. Facebook takes groups of photos you’ve taken together at the same place and around the same time, and automatically combines them into collages you can share in your Facebook Timeline.
These collages can include photos and videos you’ve taken on your phone. You can see which photos and videos Facebook has suggested, and delete any you don’t want to include. You can also drag and drop to rearrange the orders of the photos and videos.
[tip]Photo Collages on Facebook are being introduced first on iPhones and then on Android. If you don’t have the feature yet, check back in a few weeks. [/tip]
To get started, open the Facebook app on your phone and tap Photo.
If you see a slideshow at the top of your photos, then you have this feature enabled on your app. If you don’t see a collage, take a few photos to see if a collage appears.
Tap the slideshow to open a collage.
You can choose which photos to include in the collage. Tap the X at the upper right corner to delete any photos you don’t want in the collage. Scroll to the bottom of the collage and tap Add More to select any other photos you have on your phone to be included in the collage.
If you took a lot of photos of one subject, you can choose to include one image or all of the images in a slideshow within the collage.
You can arrange the images in your collage by dragging and dropping them into position. Drop them to change the order in which you want them to appear and to change the size of the images.
At the top is the title of the collage. The default title Facebook gives the collage is based on when you took the photos, such as “Saturday Afternoon.” You can delete the default title and type in any other title you want, such as “My First Hula Lesson.”
Tap Next, then select who can see the collage. You can choose to make the collage public or share the collage with only your friends on Facebook.
You can also include a description above the collage.
When you’re satisfied with your settings, tap Post in the upper right corner to share your collage with others.
[tip]Once you’ve posted your collage you can no longer edit it so be sure your collage is the way you want it before you tap Post. [/tip]
Viewing the Collage
The collage appears as a slideshow on your Timeline. If you tap on the slideshow the collage opens with the photos arranged in a grid.
GIFs in Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger got a whole lot more fun, if you’re a fan of GIFs. Now you can include GIF animated images from within Facebook Messenger without having to use a separate app.
Facebook Messenger GIFs work both on your computer and within the Facebook Messenger app on your phone. You should be able to add GIFs to your Facebook messages anywhere you are in the world.
To add a GIF to a Facebook message, tap or click on the GIF icon below the message box.
You can see the Trending GIFs that people are using the most, or search for a GIF based on a keyword.
Choose the one you want by clicking or tapping on it and that GIF will appear as a message from you. At the bottom of the GIF you can see where the image came from.
Let the Fun begin!
Live Video
Speaking of fun, Facebook wants you to share your fun with your friends as it happens with the new Live Video feature. Live Video lets you broadcast live streaming video to your Facebook friends or the public. No need to wait until your fun is over to post what you’ve been doing. Like Periscope or Hang w/, Facebook Live Video lets you share your world with others in real time.
Like Collages, Live Video isn’t available to everyone yet, you may have to wait to use this feature. As with many new features, Facebook is introducing Live Video gradually, starting with iPhone users in the US. But soon these features will be available on Android as well and around the world.
To get started using Live Video, open the Facebook app on your phone, tap Status, then tap the antenna icon at the bottom of the screen.
Facebook will turn on the front camera of your phone in Live Video. You can switch to using the rear camera by tapping on the circle icon with two arrows in the upper right corner of your screen.
You can type in a description of what you’re showing to let your friends know what they’re seeing.
When you’re ready to share your fun, you can tap the Go Live button and start streaming. You can stream for up to 30 minutes. Tap Finish when you’re done.
During the streaming you can see the names of people who are watching your Live Video and read their comments. You can block anyone who isn’t behaving well.
When you’re finished, the video will be saved on your Timeline so your friends who didn’t tune in can watch it later.
Watching Live Videos
You can subscribe to Live Videos from your friends and from celebrities so you’re alerted when they’re broadcasting on Facebook. Tap Subscribe when you’re watching a video to get notifications for future Live Videos from that person.
[tip] Check out Facebook Adds Major New Features to Live Videos to learn more about Live Videos [/tip]
To subscribe to a celebrity’s Live Video, go to their Facebook Page, go to their Video section and tap Subscribe. You can watch past Live Videos and get notified when they are broadcasting.
Check out this Facebook post to see celebrities who are using Facebook Live Video.
Your Thoughts
Are you excited about Facebook’s fun new features? Which ones have you tried? Which ones will you use most?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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Hi Carolyn,
What fun! 🙂
Honestly speaking, I haven’t connected my social media accounts with my smartphone as I wouldn’t like those several notifications that distract me, but my kids would be thrilled with this information!
Yes, I have seen a few friend’s use the Gif’s and wondered how it was all done. Your post made it all so easy! It surely tempts me to try these out – I guess I’d do one odd one from my elder one’s mobile, just for fun! The videos are interesting always, though with all these new things, we need to be careful of the time we spend on Facebook now – it can become addictive 🙂
Thanks for sharing it with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, I discovered the collage feature last week when I was traveling. It was so much fun to see what Facebook created and share it with my friends. The collages got much more engagement than individual photos did, so I’m glad Facebook launched this. I know when I see these on my friends’ Facebook posts, I pay more attention.
The GIFs are fun too and you can use these from your computer. Just click on the GIF icon to find fun GIFs to add to your messages.
Thanks for your comment and shares, Harleena!
Hey Carolyn,
Why do they have all the cool things on apps? I was thinking that this was a new feature Facebook had added. I don’t access Facebook from my phone because as you know I’m on my PC all day every day. I don’t even have it loaded on my phone because once I’m off this computer that’s the last thing I want to do. LOL!!!
It’s still cool though, lots of fun things you can do and I know you’ve shared a lot of fun things using yours too. I’m going to have to go check out your wall now. I took 2 weeks off for the holidays so I missed a lot I’m sure.
Thank you though for sharing this with us, you always keep us up to date with the newest stuff.
Happy New Year and have a good one.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Well I know you’re a fan of GIFs so you’ll be happy to know that the GIF feature is available on computers too. My conversation with Suresh using the GIFs shown in the article took place from a computer.
I can understand why collages and Live Video are available only on phones but maybe someday those will come to computers too!