Facebook has developed an app, called Moments, which will allow users to share photographs privately with each other at events, as well as intelligently store and organise their images.
"It's hard to get the photos your friends have taken of you, and everyone always insists on taking that same group shot with multiple phones to ensure they get a copy," says Facebook product manager Will Ruben in a blog post announcing the new product on Monday. "Syncing photos with the Moments app is a private way to give photos to friends and get the photos you didn't take."
Once shared, the app then groups the photos on the user's device based on where they were taken and which friends are in the photographs, using facial recognition technology. The app will also prompt users to share photographs with specific friends once they are recognised.
Users will be able to share single photographs or albums on their Facebook page, Messenger or Instagram from within Moments. Moments is available in the US on iOS and Android, and should be rolled out to other countries "over time", says Regan.
Facebook's move comes after search engine giant Google announced its own photo storage solution with Google Photos.
Facebook has not said if it will limit the number of photos stored on the Moments app. Google Photos allows users to store an unlimited amount of high-quality photos and videos for free. However, any picture with a resolution above 16MP and video more than 1080p will be compressed.
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