Facebook recently announced a new setting in its messaging app, Facebook Messenger, that allows the app to access user camera rolls in order to quickly identify and sort photos based on face recognition so that sending pictures to friends and family can be ten times easier. While initially I found this extremely creepy, I’ve come to realize the crotchety technophobic old man that sits in the back of my mind was stalling this great progress in technology.
It’s not weird. In fact, it’s leaps and bounds when one thinks about it. Just from a picture, programs such as Facebook can quickly identify the person in it, taking a picture worth a thousand words and boiling it down to a single name picked out of millions.
In addition, it makes organizing so much simpler. A person takes over a hundred different photos at a Halloween party. Being honest with themselves, they know they aren’t going to take the time to organize every single photo, because really who organizes anymore? And so the photos remain jumbled and cluttered.
This is where the app comes in. It automatically does the work for you, making sending images all the more easier.
Much concern lies in how this is done automatically, but Facebook has a really cool setting where people can opt out of letting Facebook activate the facial recognition feature automatically. So, to all the people confused by the improvement, or those who legitimately don’t want their photos organized, that option is a simple click away.
