Facebook Wants You To Say Thanks

Facebook seems releasing a flurry of new features at the moment. Last month it announced and new feature allowing users to check in after disasters. Then, earlier this month it enables a way to users to indicate that they had voted in a particular election, in order to raise awareness of voting. It latest announcement today, follows this trend: a feature giving a user the ability to send more personal messages to their friends.

Called ‘Say Thanks’, this new feature will allow a user to send a personalised video message to one of their Facebook friends. These video messages allow a user to add in pieces of interaction between you and this friend, such as pictures where you are both tagged, or posts which you have commented on together. Facebook explains:

“Your friends are at the core of your Facebook experience, and we are always looking for new ways to help you celebrate those friendships… Share a Say Thanks video with a close friend, your significant other, a relative, a coworker, an old friend – or anyone else in your life who you’d like to celebrate. There is no limit to how many personalized videos you can create and share.”

While it seems like it was designed in good faith, Say Thanks could easily get very annoying very quickly. Due to the way these video messages are shared on your Timeline the way people are tagged within them, these posts will come absolutely dominate the Timelines of people celebrating special events such as birthdays or weddings.