A New Facebook Facelift
As a Facebook enthusiast, I recently noticed something different in my timeline. Instead of the average white text box status update from friends, they were in a variety of colored text boxes. I looked into this to discover it is something new that Facebook is testing to make personal text “statuses” more modern and less boring than the usual white background.
Facebook is trying out this new feature that allows you to personalize what you share with a paint palette of color. How cool is that? The catch is you cannot use this feature for video posts, links or images. It is so amazing that instead of having to go with the default white background you can personalize things.
It has been confirmed by a Facebook spokesperson that this change is intended to help people make their text posts more visual.
Here’s how you can utilize it
- Tap on the “What’s on your mind” status bar, then start typing your message
- Choose the color of choice that is below your text and tap post
Currently, they are offering eight color options with more planned to choose from: white, orange, yellow, orange gradient, red-orange, green and blue gradient and, pink and purple gradient, and grey.
Right now this feature is only available to Android users, but anyone on Facebook can see these stylized posts. Sorry iOS users, they are working on it for you and those using a desktop computer.
When I use Facebook, it is not to get news updates from around the world. It is more to see what is going on with my real friends as well as my Facebook-only friends. Having this option makes me excited. I was never one of those kids that liked the 8-count box of Crayola Crayons. I liked the big 64-count box. You can bet on no more boring white text updates from me. You see folks, sometimes it is the little things. Apparently, in testing and user feedback someone must have suggested this. Let’s hope it sticks around.
It kind of reminds me a bit of what you might see on Instagram. Keep things modern-looking and fresh and not boring. Change is not always good, but in some cases being able to personalize your texts makes them pop out and catch the reader’s eye.
Have you seen any of these new-style text updates on Facebook yet?
What do you think of them? Should they stay or should they go?
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Sherri,
Pretty cool.
I have a Google Pixel Android and just tried it out and it works for me here in Canada, but when I look at the post on my computer it’s still regular text to my friends. I have to assume it’s still in their testing stage. So it looks great on my Android but I don’t think anyone else out there is seeing it.
Thanks for the update.
I also “F.B. Purity” on my Windows 10 Notebook with Google Chrome Browser, so I’m wondering if Purity has any filtering going on for this new feature. I might turn off F.B. Purity to see if there’s any change.
Let me know if you see it on the posts for regular users computers too.
Since I use a computer, I haven’t “looked” to see if I’m offered choices for colored backgrounds.
However, I find it annoying that if I create a short post, the letters are extremely large and there doesn’t seem to be any choice available, that I can find, to make them “normal” size.
Personally, I don’t care for that “feature” and wish they’d allow me to choose the size of the text of my short posts.
I don’t mind change, but I do mind not being allowed to make a choice based on my own personal preferences.
So how do I turn this horribly distracting feature off? It, and the ridiculous emoticons that have started to pop up, invading my text field have got to go. I don’t need a visual representation of a slice of pizza hovering over my field when I’m posting. I’ll never use it, and sometimes it gets stuck, making it really annoying. I’m about to go to an alternative Facebook client.
Robbzilla,
The color feature is for text-only status updates, but I am sure you already knew that. To date, I have not discovered a way to turn that option off.. If anyone does, please share.
To get rid of the slices of pizza and other emoticons that drive you nuts do the following:
Launch the Facebook Messenger app on your device
Tap the “Me” tab at the bottom and choose the Photos and Media option.
There will be the Messenger emoji button. Just turn it off.
You will now be able to use the standard emoticon and emoji of your device instead of the new Facebook Messenger emoji.
It appears there is no option to turn off Messenger emoji on desktop computers.
My color background on ” What’s on your mind ” on Facebook isn’t working . When I first start typing it shows all of the different colors then when I post it it’s gone !!! It’s not staying colorful !!! What do I need to do to fix this problem ??? Please help me I LOVE THESE BEAUTIFUL NEW COLORS !!!
I am having trouble with the new color background on” What’s on your mind ” on Facebook !!! Is anyone else having problems with the new colors staying on ??? I pick the color I want then as soon as I post it my color background is gone !!! Is there anyone else having this problem ??? Would someone please help me with this please ?? I’m not typing too much in the ” What’s on your mind ” so I know it’s not that . I wasn’t having any problems with the new color background since it first started , but now I’m having problems with it . Is there an App I have to install in order to get the colors now ?? I’m not that up to date on all the things on my phone but I have not been having trouble with it now I am. I post whatever I type in ” What’s on your mind ” it’s in the color I pick soon as it’s posted on Facebook the color is gone !!! Help me please!!!!