Facebook releases Moments for iPhone, a brand new private photo-sharing app

Facebook Moments 1.0 for iOS iPhone screenshot 001

Billed as a private way to share photos with friends and an easy way to get all the photos of yourself trapped on your friends’ phones, Moments for iPhone by Facebook is now available for download in the App Store.

Following a few futile attempts to unseat Snapchat in the ephemeral messaging space, Facebook gave up and went to the drawing board to conceive a different take on private sharing where images won’t disappear after being viewed.

Their new iPhone app lets you organize and sync multiple photos in private albums that can be shared directly on Facebook or Instagram, and sent via Messenger. Using facial recognition, Moments groups your photos based on who’s in them and when they were taken. Your friends can then contribute to the synced moment with their own photos.

Moments is a solution to the seemingly simple problem of providing a private repository where people can give photos of their weddings, vacations and other events to their friends and get the photos they didn’t take, without having to email a bunch of pictures to dozens of people individually.

Using Moments, you can search for photos of yourself and your friends, save the ones others sync to you to your iPhone’s Camera roll and more.

Facebook Moments 1.0 for iOS iPhone screenshot 002

“After events, celebrations, trips or just hanging out, it’s no longer a hassle to collect all the photos you’ll want to look back on,” Facebook says. “With Moments, you can quickly give your photos to friends and get their photos, too.”

Here’s the app in action.

https://vimeo.com/130380325

Facebook says Moments uses the same facial recognition technology that powers tag suggestions on Facebook.

More about the app is available at the official website.

Facebook Moments highlights:

  • Keep all your photos organized in one private place
  • Sync multiple photos at once—no need to text or email individual photos
  • Search to find photos of yourself and your friends
  • Save photos other people sync to you on your phone’s camera roll
  • Share directly on Facebook or Instagram, and send in Messenger if you want

Moments is also available for Android.

The 24.4-megabyte app requires an iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 8.0 or later.

Download Facebook Moments free in the App Store.