Like usual, Facebook has recently announced numerous changes intended to amplify and improve users’ experience.
The innovations benefit companies and individuals alike. So if you have a business or just use the Social Network in your leisure time, these are the new Facebook functions in 2016!
The New Facebook Functions that will amplify and improve your experience on the Social Network
Many of the new Facebook functions that you will see in this list have been announced on the 12th and 13th of April in mark of the F8: Facebook Developer Conference event, in which the top developers of the company gathered.
1- Facebook launches a bot platform for Messenger
No doubt, one of the principle news announced by the Social Network is the implementation of robots on Messenger, Facebook chat. The innovation’s objective is to simplify customer service provided to companies all around the world, which can now be done via chat.
According to the CEO of the Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg, due to this innovation people no longer have to call a 0-800 number for commercial consults, now they can resolve their issues through Messenger. To do this, the new system will combine artificial intelligence with human interaction.
The tools presented include an API which enables developers to create bots to run Facebook chat. The engineers confirm that if the bulk of the population adopts this new customer service method, online robots could become a key means for commerce and customer service.
2- Facebook now enables live and direct videos to be transmitted from any camera via Facebook Live
Another huge announcement from Mark Zuckerberg en el F8 has to do with the unheard of possibility of transmitting live and direct videos on the Social Network via Facebook Live. To do this the company will launch an API which will enable developers to implement this new live-streaming function on their own applications.
In order to test this point, during F8 the CEO of the company exhibited a live transmission of an aerial shot carried out by a DJI drone, whose images could be seen through the Social Network. In the stream Zuckerberg could be seen waving to the camera moments later to say goodbye to the device.
This innovation will allow you in the very near future to transmit live videos on Facebook through any camera. This way you will be able to organize webinars and other content marketing strategies, and spread them through the Social Network with more world users.
3- Videos on Vine and other external apps will be able to be recorded in order to use them as profile “photos”
Another one of the recently announced Facebook functions is the possibility of generating videos to be used in place of traditional still photos currently used in users’ profiles. For this, you will be able to use third-party applications such as Vine, Boomerang and Instagram. And hopefully many other apps will be added to the list.
The precedents of this function go back to September 2015, when Facebook launched among its new functions at the time the possibility of recording short videos up to 7 seconds, to be used as a profile picture. The idea of these implementations is to increase users’ possibilities of personalizing their profiles.
Additionally, according to the company’s blog, when a video is published as a profile picture from external sources onto the Social Network, the developers will appear in the credits. This attribute will be displayed on the Newsfeed.
4- Now Facebook allows developers to register users with only a telephone number
Thinking about countries outside of the United States, especially the developing ones whose citizens can’t access an email, Facebook offers developers the possibility of registering users through their telephone numbers.
With Facebook’s new registration tool companies from all over the world will increase their chances of adding users to their applications. Additionally, this innovation offers security benefits, since it’s much more difficult to steal a telephone number than an email password.
The mode of operation of this innovation is as follows: applications that enable registration via Facebook will ask you for your telephone number. Once you enter it, Facebook will request a confirmation of your identity by sending a code to your mobile device. After completing the process, you will be able to enjoy the app without having to remember any passwords.
5- You can now share textual citations directly on Facebook
Now the Social Network enables the developers to let users naturally share textual citations from their applications onto Facebook. So, when people are using an app and find a phrase (or various paragraphs) to be interesting, they will be able to directly share the information on their profiles.
An additional benefit, in contrast to other similar services, is that Facebook doesn’t set a limit on the length of the text. In fact, instead of permitting a maximum of 140 characters (as does Twitter) Zuckerberg’s company allows a length of more than 60 thousand characters per citation.
This new function makes it possible, for example, so that Kindle readers don’t have to copy and paste text in order to be able to share on Facebook, but rather they can simply highlight the text and select the option to share it. Once published, the citation will include a preview of the original URL. Great! Don’t you think?
6- Facebook enables a Legacy Contact in case something happens to you
One of the more striking recently announced Facebook functions has to do with the possibility of selecting a contact to manage a person’s account after they have passed. This way users can decide what to do with their messages, photos and publications once they are no longer in this world.
This function, known as a Legacy Contact, is very easy to implement. To do this you only have to chose one of your friends included in your Facebook contact list and enable them to be able to download a file with your photos, profile and publication information.
The person that you choose as your Legacy Contact will be allowed to publish status updates on your timeline, change your profile picture and respond to friend requests. However, they will not be able to speak on your behalf since each publication will appear under their name (not yours).
7- Messenger improves and is made independent
As of now, Facebook makes it possible for users to register via mobiles and use Messenger without the need to have a Facebook account. It’s worth noting that this possibility is only enabled on phones, at least for the moment, since the web version requires registering on the Social Network.
Other good news is that you can now carry out video calls via Messenger, free of charge. This new function puts the application in direct competition with Skype, being a better free alternative to this service.
Additionally, Messenger already works as an independent web application (Messenger.com), so I advise trying it sooner than later. For this you can register through your email address or telephone number.
8- Facebook invites you to look through your timeline with filters for specific days
During the past years Facebook transformed users’ individual profiles into biographies in such a way that their publications formed part of their life stories. To complement this format, the Social Network now allows people to explore their posts through the filter “On This Day”.
This said innovation enables you to review what you were doing in your life on a particular day, with the goal of maintaining a better account of your activities. To experiment with this function you simply should go to the Notifications tab and click on the “Settings” option, as shown in the image below.
Once there, you should locate the option “On This Day” and activate notifications. This way every time the system detects your publications or memories to “remember”, you will receive a notification. Ideal for those who are nostalgic!
9- You can now create a prívate and controled library of memories with photos of your kids
If you are a mom or dad then surely you have felt the uncontrollable desire to share photos of your kids on Facebook on more than one occasion. Nevertheless, the risks of putting children on display are not minor, and that’s exactly why the Social Network created “Scrapbook”, a photo album with special privacy options.
Thanks to this innovation, you can control the online distribution of photos of your children, so you can make sure that they’re all located in one place. Thus, this tool helps you share memories of your little ones under 13 with the rest of your family members, exclusively or publicly, whichever way you choose.
As is the case with the other Facebook functions mentioned on this list, this option is still in its pilot stages in the majority of countries outside of the United States, and hopefully during the next months its use will be available to the rest of the world.
That’s all for today! I hope that learning these 9 Facebook Functions helps you get an idea of where the Social Network in 2016 is going and how you can orient your strategies to take advantage of the changes.
Did you like this blog post? Which of the mentioned functions was most interesting to you? Share your opinion with us! And please, remember to share this information with your contacts. Until next time! 😉