Since the launch of 3D photos last fall, we’ve seen people embrace this new way of sharing memories with a fun, lifelike dimension in News Feed—both on mobile and web—and VR, where it’s best enjoyed. Today, we’re announcing three new features for 3D photos on Facebook as we continue to grow the product.

3D Photos in Stories

Starting today, you can share 3D photos through Facebook Stories, a place where people share real, everyday moments. Just like with 3D photos you share to News Feed, you’ll be able to see who has viewed, reacted to, and responded to your story. The difference is that Stories are only visible for 24 hours, so they always feel current and help people catch up on what happened that day.

To post your 3D photo to Facebook Stories, upload them through the News Feed as you do with 3D photos today. After you press the share button, you’ll see an option to share on either News Feed or Your Story.

3D Photos Creation on the Web

We’ve also seen a lot of original art creation that involves hacking together multiple steps to bring 3D photo scenes to life using depth and movement. Today, we’re making this process easier and more streamlined. We’re excited to announce the ability to post 3D photos from the web, on your computer, in addition to iPhone dual-camera devices.

Shown L – R: Original photo, hand-drawn depth map, and resulting 3D photo

This feature is specifically designed for custom art creation or images not taken in Portrait mode. Here are some helpful hints to preview/publish through www flow:

You’ll need two (2) files for this to work: an image and a depth map, either in .png or .jpg format. File names matter! Make sure the depth map has _depth appended to the file name. For example: myImage.png + myImage_depth.png would be what your two files might be named to use this flow. While the aspect ratio of your depth map and your image must match, they don’t need to be the same resolution. As shown below, to create a 3D photo from the web, drag an image and its depth map and drop them into the composer:

Here are some examples of the exciting creations that can be made with this custom style:

3D Photos Creation on Android

We’ve heard you and we’re happy to announce that next month, we’ll begin rolling out the ability to create and share 3D photos on Android, starting with Samsung Galaxy devices with dual cameras or Portrait mode. Supported models will include: Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9+, Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10 5G, and Galaxy Fold. Stay tuned for more updates on Android support—we can’t wait to see what you create!

We hope these updates to 3D photos will help you share your memories and photos in a new way. Please follow Facebook 360, 3D Photos on Facebook, and The 3D Gallery to stay up-to-date on new 3D photo feature releases and see what the community is creating on a daily basis.

Everything looks better in 3D.