Facebook

Facebook is now letting its 1.11 billion members react to their friends' status updates with photo comments.

The social network said Wednesday that it has started the global release of the new feature, which lets people add photos to comment threads using a new Attach a Photo button. To start, uploads of photo comments will be restricted to the Facebook Web site and mobile site, but simply viewing photo comments will be possible from Facebook's mobile applications, the company said.

Photo comments are a product of one of Facebook's famous hackathons. Facebook engineer Bob Baldwin, one of the developers behind the release, said he was inspired to create the photo comments feature because, "sometimes showing a photo helps me tell a story much better than words alone."

The new addition could transform the social network into a more meme and teen-friendly zone, as photos turn commenting into a more playful activity. Of course, there's also the potential for spam, abuse, and just plain ugly comment threads. But imaginer Baldwin wishes for the best. "I hope this will make threads with friends more expressive and engaging," he said.