Facebook announced on Tuesday, new AI-powered features designed to allow users to express themselves in more playful ways across the platform. The updates include animated profile photos, tools to re-style photos in Stories and Memories, and the ability to add animated backgrounds to text posts.
As Meta works to maintain Facebook's relevance among younger users of its flagship app, you can bet that these new features will provide a more personalized experience that will appeal to Gen Z.
The new animated profile photo feature applies motion effects to still photos, making the subject appear to be waving, forming a heart shape, or wearing a virtual party hat. For best results, Facebook recommends using a clear photo of a single person facing the camera. Photos can be downloaded directly from the user's camera roll or from images already on the platform. The company also plans to add more animation options throughout the year.
Facebook is also improving its Stories — short posts of photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours — and Memories — a feature that displays posts from the same date in previous years — with its “Restyle” tool, which uses Meta AI to reimagine the appearance of photos posted by users.
After uploading a photo to Stories or selecting a memory to share, users can click Change Style and enter a text prompt or choose from pre-made themes, including anime, illustrated, sparkle, ethereal and more. There are also options to adjust moods, lighting and colors, and change the background such as a beach or cityscape.
To spice up text posts, Facebook is also gradually rolling out animated backgrounds. By clicking the new rainbow “A” icon, users can choose from a variety of still and animated scenes, such as falling leaves or ocean waves, to make their posts stand out in their news feed. The company says seasonal backgrounds will be coming soon.
With approximately 2.1 billion daily active users, Facebook remains a social media giant. However, in recent years it has struggled to attract and retain a younger demographic.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA
|
June 23, 2026
To solve this problem, the platform used new technology, including artificial intelligence, and introduced a more youthful redesign. Other recent updates include a friends-only channel and the ability to use unique display names in Groups, similar to how Reddit handles usernames in its communities. The platform is also trying to make the nudge function – a way of tapping another user on the shoulder, so to speak – useful again by launching a new, dedicated button on user profiles that alerts the recipient about the nudge via notifications.
