Moments, the photo app launched by Facebook in July of 2015, is coming to the European Union and Canada, making it officially available in all countries worldwide.
When Facebook decided to replace its photo syncing service with Moments at the end of last year, users of the social network no longer had the capability to view photos they had privately synced from their phones without downloading the new application.
The app allows users to privately share photos with select friends, and then informs those friends, via a push notification, that they have new photos to view.
Moments was launched by the social media giant at the middle of last year in the U.S. and other countries with a facial recognition element. However, due to local privacy concerns and regulations, certain countries weren’t included in the rollout.
The most recent version of the app, including the one launching in Canada, does not include this feature, so as to comply with these laws.
The first version of Moments grouped together photos featuring the same people, allowing users to share pictures with them if they also have the app installed.
However, BBC reports that data protection watchdogs in the E.U. and Canada expressed concerns that users would have no way to opt out of the grouping process. As a result, Facebook went on to release a version of Moments that groups similar faces together, but requires users to identify who they are.
While Facebook hasn’t disclosed how many people are using the app since its release in December, BBC goes on to report that the company has stated that over 600 million photos have been shared through the app thus far.
Moments is available for download in the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store today.
Related reading: Facebook reports user data requests from Canadian government are rising
[source]BBC[/source]
