Facebook Is Testing 7-Second Video Profile Picturesbo

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• Because torturing yourself by gazing at your ex’s profile pic on Facebook might not be punishment enough, Facebook is now testing video profile photos (really, profile videos) that can be up to seven seconds and will be set to loop over and over while you keep staring/crying.

  As part of a larger profile redesign for mobile that shows a bigger photo right smack in the middle of the user’s page, with a new bio section below it, Facebook is trying out looping profile videos. If you’re not a fan of the Harry Potteresque videos (a la the Daily Prophet, of course), you can of course keep a normal photo.

  

  The new profiles allows users to set up a profile photo that expires after a certain amount of time: fore cample, someone on vacation who might want their friends to know they’re off somewhere having more fun that everyone else, by adding a note to their photo saying something like “vacation mode!”

  

  Once you’re done being on vacation, the photo reverts to the old version so you won’t have to remember to take it down in your post-vacation funk. In this case, it’s a good idea to make sure your profile — or even just the photo — isn’t viewable by the public, so strangers don’t see you’re on vacation and decide to swing by.

  Mashable reports that iPhone users in California and the U.K. will be among the first to have access to the new profile videos, starting Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. PT/2:00 p.m. ET. It’s expected to roll out to the larger user base in the near future, as Facebook says it wants to help people express themselves creatively on the site.

  
  
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by Mary Beth Quirk

via Consumerist