Facebook just made saving posts more social and less secretive. On Tuesday, December 4, Facebook announced shareable collections. The update allows the collections where Facebook’s saved posts are housed, to be shared with hand-picked friends that are added as contributors to the collection.
Facebook collections organize any saved posts on the network — the option has been around for more than a year, but collections were really only for the user to easily find later. With the update, user-created categories for saved posts can now be shared.
The update doesn’t currently allow for publicly sharing the collection with every follower, but allows the user to select which Facebook users to share the list with. Those selected users also become contributors to the collection, which means along with seeing what you’ve already saved, they can add their own posts to the list as well. Collections that don’t have a contributor will remain under Facebook’s “only me” privacy setting.
To share a collection, navigate to the Saved section inside the Facebook menu (the icon with the three lines in the app). Select the collection, then tap invite and choose who to add. Besides seeing the posts, the added users can also save their own posts to the collection. (You’ll need a saved post organized into at least one collection first. Posts can be saved by tapping on the “…” on a post from the News Feed.)
Facebook says the feature can be used in a number of different ways, like sending a gift ideas list to friends and family, sharing recipes, or planning a party with a group. The company says that millions of users use collections every day and that users asked to be able to share those collections.
Like the original option to save and organize Facebook posts, the update feels very Pinterest-like. While Facebook isn’t trying to share saved ideas with all your followers, Pinterest has long allowed users to create shared boards for collaborating with friends. While one new feature isn’t going to replace Pinterest’s multitude of search, sharing and privacy options, the update could help Facebook users share multiple ideas they spot on their news feed with a small group of people.
Facebook says the new collection sharing feature is rolling out to everyone over the next week.
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