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You may have noticed your Facebook News Feed beginning to be filled with Year in Review posts. Once again Facebook is providing us with a year-end review of our posts on Facebook. This year’s review is different from last year’s. You won’t find a video but you will find a collection of photo collages you can customize to your liking.
Facebook is rolling out the Year in Review so don’t worry if you don’t have it yet, you’ll get it eventually. The good news is that you can get your Year in Review if you haven’t received your notice yet from Facebook.
Facebook Year in Review
If Facebook hasn’t delivered your Year in Review to you yet, head to facebook.com/yearinreview. Or you can click on a friend’s Year in Review and click on View Now at the bottom of the screen.
You’ll see a profile photo from your year at the top and a collection of photos from your year. Facebook groups them in collages of four photos with a caption at the top showing the time of year they were posted. You’ll also see a colorful theme for your Year in Review.
Facebook chooses your most popular photos you’ve posted and photos you were tagged in to generate the collages. You can scroll through to the bottom to see a visual timeline of your year. Your Year in Review is private unless you choose to share it (more on that below).
Editing Your Year in Review
Don’t panic if you don’t like your Year in Review. Facebook gives you lots of editing options. You can edit your Year in Review by clicking on the Customize button at the top and bottom of the screen.
Change your profile photo for your Year in Review as well as the photos in the collages and the text that appears. You can even add sections to your Year in Review to make the most of your edits.
Delete any photos you’d rather not have featured. You can add others you’ve posted to Facebook in place of the ones you’ve deleted. Don’t be fooled by Facebook’s instructions to “Choose 4 photos for each section.” You can choose to have one, two, three or four photos included in your collages.
You can also change the background theme for your Year in Review. Facebook gives you six colorful choices:
Try all six or choose the one that speaks to you. You can change your mind if you don’t like the one you chose.
Sharing Your Year in Review
After you’re satisfied that your Facebook Year in Review is the way you want it to be, you can share it with others. Note that after you share Your Year in review you can no longer edit it.
Click the green Share button at the top or bottom of the screen. You’re given the option to add text or you can just go with what Facebook suggests:
“It’s been a great year! Thanks for being a part of it.”
You can control who sees your Year in Review by clicking on the drop-down menu next to the Post button. Note that the sharing of any photos in your Year in Review will be restricted to the same audience as when the photo was posted. For example, if you share your Year in Review to the public but a picture you’re tagged in was restricted to the poster’s friends, the only people who will see the photo in your Year in Review are Facebook friends of the poster.
Your Thoughts
Have you received your Year in Review from Facebook or did you click on the link to find it yourself? Did you customize your Year in Review or were you satisfied with what Facebook created for you? Did you share your Year in Review with others? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Carolyn is away from the Internet trying to create new events for her Facebook Year in Review. Articles will continue to be published at The Wonder of Tech in her absence. She will return on January 5 to respond to comments.
Hi Carolyn,
I did receive my “Year in Review” from Facebook and I quickly ignored it. 🙂 I honestly don’t post many photos on FB. I usually just share content (often from others) and comment. I really have mixed feelings about sharing my year in review. (I’d love to hear from you if you think that we should.)
It’s great to know how we can customize this! I have quite a few FB friends who are very interested in this type of how-to posts. So, I’m off to share it. Have a wonderful weekend. Have you scheduled some downtime before the end of the year?
Hi Sherryl, Great question. You have full control over whether you publish your Facebook Year in Review so I don’t have an opinion on what you should do with your. But I do like that this year you can customize yours to make it what you want it to be. If you don’t want to post personal pictures, you can always use it to promote your business, blog, etc.
Thank you for sharing this article, Sherry. Quite a few Wonder of Tech readers told me that they didn’t realize they could edit their Year in Review so I wanted to be sure to write an article letting people know how to do that.
Yes, I was going to go on vacation this coming week but my daughter got sick so I am back at home with her. My articles are pre-written for the week because I was going to be away so I’ll be here for comments after all!
I hope you have a wonderful week ahead, Sherryl!
Hi Carolyn,
I’m sorry to hear that your daughter is sick. I hope she recovers quickly. That’s great that you have your articles written already. I hope she’s feeling well enough to do a little celebrating on New Year’s Eve. I wish you , your family and all your Wonder of Tech a healthy and happy 2015.
Thank you, Sherryl. My daughter has made a full recovery and is back at college now. I appreciate your good wishes and hope you have a fantastic 2015!
Hi Carolyn,
I customised mine! I had dodgy pictures I had been tagged in so I changed it all. I messed up the order, but left it at that. I had quite an interesting year. I photographed 2 pop stars!
Hi Mike, You were very wise to customize your Year in Review to showcase your photography work. I’m so glad 2014 was the year you got “discovered”. Who knows what great things are ahead for you in 2015, Mike? I’m looking forward to finding out! 🙂
Hi Carolyn
This year FB offered this option with images and poss instead of videos. But it made the option fully editable and one can entirely customise his reviews according to his target audience.
Many people even don’t bother to slight change it completely shared it as it was suggested and that made an impression as if it is a build-in sharing option.
Being an online marketer one can put the images and posts related to his potential clients and products to make it more meaningful.
Thanks a lot for sharing this very informative post about the year-in-review sharing option.
Season’s greetings to you and and your blog’s wonderful community.
Hi Mi, Excellent suggestion. Yes, those with businesses may want to tailor their Year in Review to be used as a promotional tool. The ability to customize the feature makes this a golden opportunity for some.
Thanks for your interesting idea, Mi!
Hi Carolyn
I think the Facebook Year in Review is a fun thing. The summarizing of the entire year is kind of interesting. However I have heard that some people has got some sad Reviews on the timeline with pictures of family members they have lost in 2014. In fact I know that Facebook have been out apologizing for this blunder.
Thanks got most people have got a positive Year review from Facebook and as you mention, it is possible to customize it yourself.
Hi Thomas, Yes, I am one of the Facebook users who had a very tough year. My brother passed away unexpectedly in October and Facebook used his picture as my profile picture for my Year in Review.
I customized my Year in Review to include the post about my brother’s passing at the end of the year, but changed the profile photo to a different one. I also removed the sentence “It’s been a great year!” because it really hasn’t been a great year.
That being said, I still wanted to publish my Year in Review. As I look back on 2014 I want to remember the good parts of it as well as the bad. My Year in Review reminds me there were indeed some good things about the year.
I’m glad your Year in Review was fun, Thomas. You’re right, even those who truly did have great years may want to customize their photos and posts to highlight what they want.
Best wishes for an amazing 2015, Thomas!
Thanks Carolyn for sharing this post,
You know I haven’t received my “Facebook Year in Review”. So I’m going to follow your instruction to get one for me. Almost all of my friends got their and I was wondering how could I get one, and you finally resolve my problem. 😉
Hi Pankaj, Yes, it can be very frustrating to see everyone else’s Year in Review when you don’t have one of your own. The good news is that you can retrieve it from Facebook before it’s sent to you.
I hope you enjoy your trip down Memory Lane, Pankaj!
When every one in my F.B are posting their reviews of 2014. I’m waiting for some kind of invitation from my friends to get started, but then i realized that face book is providing year end review. Then i have huge prospect that How if some thing that appears in that review…!!! Can i edit that…!!! By having all this in mind i quit my review this year. But this post guides me how.
Thank You, Carolyn.
Regards,
Tom Barry.
Hi Tom, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, many people were waiting for their Year in Review to arrive from Facebook but there really isn’t a need to wait. You can go to the link in the article and see yours right away.
Yes, the article explains how you can edit your review before you publish it. Make sure to do that so you can make it show what you want it to and delete what you don’t want to feature.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, Tom!