First look: Facebook's new photo-sharing app Moments

Jefferson Graham | USA TODAY





LOS ANGELES — Facebook, which is the No. 1 place folks share photos with family and friends, introduced a new app this week to share photos privately.

It's called Moments and it's available for free in the Apple and Google app stores.

I downloaded app Monday, and here's my first take: the app works as advertised, but not as easily as some of the other recent photo app upgrades, like Google Photos and the new Flickr app. However, you've probably got a lot of friends on Facebook who you like to share with, so Moments could get to your contact list with more ease, which is the Facebook advantage.

The idea for the app is that so many of our photos of friends never get seen, because they're hidden in the camera roll of the smartphone and don't get shared.

So now, with Facebook's facial recognition software — the same tools that automatically tag your friends when you upload pictures — Facebook identifies your frequently photographed pals, organizes them into folders and can distribute them with one click.

If you find Facebook's facial recognition creepy, you're probably not the target audience for this app, which is yet another add-on for Facebook users, who already have the social network app, Messenger for instant communication and Instagram for public photo sharing.

Privacy advocates find the new app unsettling.

The issue isn't the facial recognition, but the fact that users have to opt in to not have it used, says Alvaro Bedoya, executive director on the Center on Privacy and Tech at Georgetown Law.

"The issue is that Facebook for years has insisted on turning on facial recognition by default, where other services have the user turn it on by choice," he says. "So they are essentially creating one of the largest collections out there, because so few people opt out of it....

It is super convenient that it identifies people, but they should let consumers choose to use it."

The new Facebook apps adds multiple photos for sharing--the previous Messenger app only lets you share images one at a time.

The good news: The sharing with your friends is not automatic, which is great. You have to decide to send the images with your friends, and click the button to get them there.

Because who wants a steady stream of photos coming from folks uninvited? A little caution here will go a long way.

Meanwhile, what about the other side? How do you feel about turning on Facebook and finding images of yourself that you'd never seen before, and hate that they've been posted publicly?

So now, with this app, it's a private share. Only you and your friends will see the images. And if you like what you see, and feel like posting to your timeline, download the picture and put it up yourself.





(Tip: if you don't want to be tagged in photos, you can adjust your settings to disallow the feature.)

As with all things Facebook photos related, be warned that when you share your photos with friends via Moments, the resolution is greatly, greatly reduced, so your friends won't be able to do much with the images for prints, books or the like.

With more than 1 billion folks on the social network, you'll be hearing a lot about the app, but Moments is not the only way to share photos privately.

Google's new Photos App, which came out recently, lets you share groups of photos from the camera roll one to one, without downloading a separate app, as does Flickr.

Both are easier to use, and come with higher resolution. But at the cost of free, you've got nothing to lose with trying Moments out.

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