Facebook is adding new AI features, animated profile pictures, and text post backgrounds

Facebook announced new AI-powered features on Tuesday designed to allow users to express themselves in more fun ways across the platform. Updates include animated profile photos, photo redesign tools for Stories and Memories, and the ability to add animated backgrounds to text posts.

As Meta works to keep Facebook relevant among younger users in its main app, these new features will likely provide a more personalized experience that will appeal to Gen Z.

The new animated profile picture feature applies motion effects to still photos, making the subject appear to be waving, making a heart shape, or wearing a virtual party hat. For best results, Facebook recommends using a clear photo of one person facing the camera. Photos can be pulled directly from the user’s camera roll or from photos already on the platform. The company also plans to add more animation options throughout the year.

Facebook is also improving its Stories — short photo and video posts that disappear after 24 hours — and Memories — a feature that resurfaces posts from the same date in previous years — with “Restyle,” a tool that uses Meta AI to reimagine the look of photos a user uploads.

After uploading a photo to Stories or selecting a memory to share, users can tap Redesign and either enter a text prompt or choose from preset themes, including animated, illustrated, glowing, ethereal, and more. There are also options to adjust mood, lighting, colors and toggle new backgrounds such as beach or cityscape.

To spice up text posts, Facebook is also gradually rolling out animated backgrounds. By tapping the new rainbow “A” icon, users can choose from a variety of static and animated scenes, such as falling leaves or rolling ocean waves, to make their posts stand out in the feed. The company says seasonal wallpapers are coming soon.

With around 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.

To address this issue, the platform adopted new technology, including artificial intelligence, and introduced a more youthful design. Other recent updates include a friends-only feed and the ability to use unique display names within groups, similar to how Reddit handles usernames in its communities. The platform is also trying to make its poke feature — a way to tap another user on the shoulder, so to speak — relevant again by launching a new dedicated button on users’ profiles that alerts the recipient to a poke via notifications.