Facebook Improves Photo Feature

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 27, 2011
Updated • Jan 20, 2015
Facebook
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It is an incredible number: the 250 million photos that get uploaded to Facebook every day. Imagine that: 250 million photos. That's a lot and some Facebook users must really be active in this regard.

The current photo viewer on the social networking site has caused lots of controversy since its introduction. Facebook users who did not like the photo viewers interface or functionality at all may be glad to hear that Facebook changes the layout and functionality of the Facebook photo viewer once again.

The company introduced the new features on the official Facebook blog. To sum it up: Three core changes are introduced in the new photo viewer.

Photos can now be shared with a resolution of up to 960 pixels in width, which does not look like much on first glance when compared to the existing solution of 720 pixels. Take a look at the photo below to see the difference in action.

Even better: Despite the increase in size, loading times of photos have been cut in half. Photos on average should load now twice as fast as before which means that Facebook users can access larger resolution images faster on the site.

Photos that have already been uploaded by the user will automatically be displayed in the new higher resolution if they support it.

The third and final change is a new photo viewer which on first glance looks a lot better than the current viewer. The new viewer puts the focus on the image. Instead of displaying the image on a black background, it now displays on white which is a lot easier on the eyes.

The clean interface is still displaying comments and other options (like tagging) below the photo on the photo viewer page. Here is a sample shot.

I personally like the new photo viewer and the fact that photos now load faster on Facebook.

The features are currently being rolled out to all users. It make take a few days before you get access to them in your account.

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Comments

  1. Karma said on August 29, 2012 at 9:19 pm
    Reply

    They seem to have removed the ability to SHARE photo albums with people outside of facebook also in this new update. Remember how there use to be a public URL at the bottom of the photo album that you could use to share with people who didn’t have a facebook account? Well that’s gone, or very well hidden in this new front end. Pity.

  2. Arturo said on August 30, 2011 at 1:41 am
    Reply

    Hey, that’s a picture of Lake McDonald @ Glacier National Park. Good choice. Nice place.

  3. Walton said on August 29, 2011 at 9:57 pm
    Reply

    Anyone know how to scroll down and view comments without the photo closing on Firefox? it’s really a pain

  4. Dan Coogan said on August 29, 2011 at 9:52 am
    Reply

    I don’t like the photos on white, it’s easier on the eyes with the black background.

  5. Gabriel said on August 29, 2011 at 4:45 am
    Reply

    It’s buggy, you can’t scroll down using Firefox, it closes the theater

    1. Gie said on August 29, 2011 at 9:34 am
      Reply

      Same here Gabriel… I cannot download pictures as it can’t scroll down using Google Chrome or IE browser.

  6. Jay Schwartz said on August 28, 2011 at 11:53 am
    Reply

    Sure the photo deal is a major improvement. However, I woke up this morning and everything changed. Can’t delete my own posts with ease, there’s no attach buttons for video or links anymore … and all Facebook really cares about is where I am and who I am with. Sounds downright Orwellian to me. Is facebook working with the CIA now?

  7. arezoo said on August 27, 2011 at 3:00 pm
    Reply

    gmail

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