The holidays bring out the most photos shared on Facebook, while New Year’s is the biggest day for live video — and the social network is rolling out a number of new holiday-themed tools to celebrate. On Monday, December 11, Facebook announced its list of holiday features, including new effects for Facebook Camera and, for the first time, Memories designed specifically around the holidays.
Holiday cards or “notes” start popping up on the network today. The tool allows users to send digital cards with different themes as well as for different holidays, including Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. The cards can be customized with a photo. Status updates will also have new holiday-themed backgrounds.
December will also bring a number of different camera effects. Inside Facebook Camera, holiday-themed effects launch on December 15. Like other Camera effects, the holiday options can be accessed in-app with a right swipe.
Messenger Camera will also be getting its own slew of holiday effects. The new options include holiday masks and effects that allow users to jazz up both their photos and videos. The Messenger Camera options launch on December 22.
The following day, Facebook will bring additional features to live video chat, designed for users who can’t be home for the holidays. The option brings several of the masks available in Messenger Camera into live video, including turning yourself into a reindeer or adding falling snow.
As the holiday season begins to wrap up, Facebook will launch a new Memories designed to look back on just the holiday season. While Facebook Memories will look back on what happened this day last year or look back on an entire month of memories, the holiday look back is a first for Facebook. Rather than look back on your own holiday memories, the tool curates a group of the top images from friends to browse through. The feature will begin popping up on the newsfeed December 28, along with a New Year’s option on January 4 and 5.
The new features aren’t quite done yet — because New Year’s is the platform’s biggest day for live video, Facebook will be rolling out new effects for live broadcasts, including a pair of digital 2018 glasses and party hats. The live options and Facebook Camera effects will launch on the last day of 2017.
Facebook is also encouraging users to use the events platform to find local New Year’s Eve happenings, with over 140,000 already planned and six million users already responding.
