Forget those carefully posed selfies. Facebook has started allowing users to replace their profile pictures with videos.
The seven-second clips will play on a loop, so members can pull faces or show themselves laughing to anyone visiting their page.
Facebook has started rolling out the new feature to a selection of users in Britain and California, and is expected to make it widely available in the coming months.
The social network said the change was inspired by a surge in the number of members posting videos. ‘We’re seeing people create and view more videos than ever before,’ said its product managers Aigerim Shorman and Tony Hsieh.
‘Today we’re starting to test the next step in an obvious evolution of profiles – profile videos.’ They said this will ‘let you show a part of yourself you couldn’t before’.
The videos mark the first major change to Facebook’s format since 2011 when it introduced the ‘cover photograph’ – a background picture at the top of users’ profile pages.
It has also added tools which members can use to adapt their profile pictures for a certain occasion or theme – for example, by adding rainbow colours to show support for gay rights. – Daily Mail