Facebook is rolling out its latest experiment that scrolls through your camera roll and identifies friends of yours on its database. Facebook already has in place an algorithm that suggests your friends’ names when you upload photos on the social media network. Its latest initiative, called ‘Photo Magic’, aims to expand facial recognition through its messenger option.
The idea of the social media giant looking through your camera roll might creep users but Facebook also enables the option of not seeing any suggestions for the photos you take on your phone but your name will show up on people who have the option activated on their phones. Face recognition via Photo Magic will be limited only to Facebook friends.
David Marcus, head of the Messenger app said in a Facebook post, “This is one of our upcoming features I’m really excited about as it’s still way too difficult to share photos with friends, and receive all the ones you’re in.”
Photo magic will recognise your friends from photos you have taken of them and thus providing you with the option of sharing photos with them straight after you shoot them. It will take only a few seconds if you’re on Android or a few minutes if you’re on iOS. A push notification will appear below the image suggesting the names of the people in the image via Facebook’s messenger app. The feature will be tested in a few countries on iOS and Android versions before rolling it out to Facebook users world over.
Messenger’s product manager Peter Martinazzi has confirmed that Facebook will use the same facial recognition technology used in tag suggestions on Facebook and the moments app.
“We’ve seen that private sending of photos in Messenger is really popular. About 9.5 billion photos were sent inside Messenger in the last month,” Peter Martinazzi said. “It’s growing even faster than Messenger over all, which is growing really fast.”
The new move could give the social media network a leg up in its fight with rivals Snapchat.
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