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Facebook introduces new feature to Messenger that scans your camera roll to identify friends

November 11, 2015

Via: Tech Spot

Facebook is launching a new feature for its messenger app that scans through your most recently taken photos, uses facial recognition to identify any of your friends that may be in them, and prompts you to send the image to the identified individuals.

The feature, called Photo Magic, scans a users’ most recent photos on a device’s camera roll to try and determine if they contain any of their Facebook friends. It does this using the same facial recognition technology found in the social network’s photo tag suggestion system and Moments app. Once it identifies someone, it will ask the user if they want to share the picture with that person. Agreeing to this will open a new conversation with that friend or a group message if Photo Magic identifies several different people. Facebook said users’ camera rolls will be scanned “periodically.”

“If you get a new picture, whether you took that picture in your camera app or in a different app, and it goes to your camera roll, then we’ll face detect on that picture,” Peter Martinazzi, product manager for Facebook Messenger, told Mashable. “Then we’ll send you the local notification for you to send that photo [to friends] if you want to.”

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