Facebook Moments, the photo harvesting app that launched in 2015 is shutting down next month on February 25th. The app allowed you to manage your photos and your friends too by uploading all of them and then Facebook could use its facial recognition tech to easily identify the photos and share them with your friends. If you had any photos you shared with your friends, Facebook then notified you suggesting you share the said images with the people in the photos.
Here’s what was weird about the app
The Moments app was Facebook’s way of wanting to get more users through the face-scanning and photo-sharing app. Facebook then used profile data to figure out things like your friends and their birthdays. Photos uploaded in this platform had nowhere else to go as the app didn’t actually link those photos up to Facebook in a proper way so users shifted to a more easier to use an app like Google Photos which has numerous features or uploading the photos straight up to Facebook.
Why they are shutting down
People just weren’t using the Moments app that often. This isn’t the first app that Facebook has failed to increase user engagement with as this is a problem that keeps on repeating for the giant social media platform – how to get users to take up apps beyond their main features. Low numbers have previously led to the shutdown of some of its other apps including tbh, Paper, Poke, Rooms and Lifestage. Users have mostly been interacting with its other apps like WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram.
I used the app, how do I export my photos?
Head over to the website version of the app where you either create a private album that links up to your Facebook account or download everything. Facebook has set up May 2019 as the deadline before the photos are gone for good.
- If you opt to download the photos, you’ll be required to enter your password and then select the photo quality you want to download them in from low, medium to high. Once you’ve done this, Facebook will create a link for you to get all your photos and you’ll be notified via email when they’re ready to be downloaded.
- For those who choose to export them as albums, there’s an option to share them publicly. The album’s privacy option is set to “Only Me” by default which is a good thing.
What’s next?
Facebook says that they’ll incorporate some of the technology that was used by the app and probably trickle it down to its other apps like how they did with Memories, Stories, Highlights, Save Photos and the Stories Archive features. With privacy scandals that rocked the platform, more people are more conscious of how they share their photos to the platform, especially their private photos.
We’re ending support for the Moments app, which we originally launched as a place for people to save their photos. We know the photos people share are important to them so we will continue offering ways to save memories within the Facebook app.
Rushabh Doshi, director of product management for Moments, said in a statement.
That would be a shame if they closed it down. I received my album of some 65 photos that I had submitted to Facebook over the years just yesterday and it is awesome. I had already suggested to others they look into it only to find this, closing down due to lack of interest.