Dubbed Photo Magic, basically when you enable this feature, the app will scan your photo library and try to look for photos that might contain faces of people you know on Facebook.
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While the feature is a nice way to ensure users are able to connect over shared memories, it does require a few serious privacy concessions on the part of the user.
The concept is similar to Moments, the private photo-sharing app Facebook launched earlier this year. Messenger users collectively send one another 9.5 billion pictures a month, and that number is growing faster than the overall rate of messaging.
Facebook has begun a slow rollout of a new feature for its Messenger app that it hopes will make sharing photos easier.
Say you snap a photo of a group of friends at a party, Facebook will detect the faces of people you’re friends with in the most recent image on your camera roll.
Messenger is very proactive in prompting to share a photo with friends it thinks are in a photo – the app will send a notification asking you to send a photo to people on Facebook it thinks are tagged. If you’ve ever sent your friends a photo via Messenger, you’ve likely already opted in.
The Photo Magic feature is available for Australian Android users today, and will roll out to Australian iOS users shortly.
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You’ll need to give Messenger permission to access your photos before you can start using Photo Magic. Peter Martinazzi, a director of product management on Messenger, told me he found himself in this position after Halloween, when his camera roll filled up with photos of his friends in costume. As you take new pictures with your friends, Messenger will notify you to suggest that you share your new pictures with the included friends.
