Facebook Launches Birthday Videos

Facebook is all about birthdays.

Now you will not only receive scads of best wishes on your big day, the day after you will receive a recap video that compiles what the social network’s algorithms deem to be the best of those wishes.

Dubbed Birthday Recap Videos, the 45-second video features a festive three-tier birthday cake with secret doors that open to reveal some of the birthday messages you received the previous day. You will need to have received at least three messages for the feature to work.

You can share the recap video on your timeline or just keep it for your own enjoyment. You also have the option of editing the video before sharing it. That way, if Facebook missed a great post, or included one you did not like, you can add or remove them from the clip.

The social media giant is rolling out the feature to users worldwide this week — and the recap videos certainly do beat Twitter’s birthday offering: balloons appearing on the profiles of those who input their birth date.

The new feature, it seems, is all part of Facebook’s strategy to focus its News Feeds on users’ friends and family to keep its members as engaged as possible.

As product management vice-president Adam Mosseri  explained last month: “Facebook was built on the idea of connecting people with their friends and family. That is still the driving principle of News Feed today. Our top priority is keeping you connected to the people, places and things you want to be connected to — starting with the people you are friends with on Facebook. That’s why if it’s from your friends, it’s in your feed, period — you just have to scroll down. To help make sure you don’t miss the friends and family posts you are likely to care about, we put those posts toward the top of your News Feed.”