Facebook has issued a warning to its users, saying all photos synced from their phones to the platform will be deleted in July if they do not download a separate photo-app.
The app, called Moments, was launched in June last year. It allows users to share photographs privately with each other at events, as well as intelligently store and organise their images.
Moments was developed shortly after search engine giant Google announced its own photo storage solution called Google Photos, which has had over four million downloads.
The warning was sent out in the form of a notification or e-mail.
The social network will not delete all photos on users' Facebook profiles, only those that can be found in a private album called Synched, or Synched from Phone.
The synching feature was introduced in 2012 to iOS users as a way to store all photos taken on their iPhones.
This is not the first time the social network has forced its users to download a separate app. Late in 2014, Facebook said its users would only be able to message each other on the mobile platform if they downloaded Messenger. Previously, they were able to perform the same functions within the main app.
Users were up in arms about the forced download as the extra app seemed unnecessary and took up space on smartphones.
However, the forced download seemed to work, as Facebook Messenger said earlier this year it had 900 million users.
Facebook members are again upset about the compulsory Moments download.
One Twitter user, Bryan Beal, said: "Facebook is forcing its users to download ANOTHER app. Clearly they want your phone to be nothing BUT Facebook apps."
Another user, Hammy Havoc, bemoaned: "Say no to surveillance capitalism by not installing Facebook's Moments app. Let them delete your photos. Plenty of superior alternatives."
The Moments app, at the time of writing, was the number one download in the Apple App Store and had been downloaded over 500 000 times in the Google Play Store.
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