New Facebook Feature Allows You To Schedule The Deletion Of Your Posts

Facebook is testing a new feature that would allow the creation of posts that have an expiration date, after which they will disappear. With the increasing popularity of apps and technologies such as Snapchat, that provide users with the ability so send images and messages that self-delete, it’s little wonder that Facebook are trying to muscle in. After all – the social network recently tried to acquire Snapchat for a cool 3 billion dollars.

Earlier this week some users noticed the new feature in the Facebook iOS app, with a ‘Choose Expiration’ option letting users set the half-life of their posts to be between 1 hour and 7 days, after which time the post will disappear. A screenshot sent to TheNextWeb shows how the interface looks:

When TNW contacted Facebook seeking clarification on the new feature, a spokesperson said:

“We’re running a small pilot of a feature on Facebook for iOS that lets people schedule deletion of their posts in advance.”

With the likes of Snapchat and other self-destructing messages, the direct messaging aspect has unsurprisingly lent itself to the sending of erotic and risqué pictures that only the intended recipient can see before they vanish into thin air. However it’s hard to imagine that the sort of things you’d take the trouble to make sure aren’t permanent are also the ones that you’d want to post to your broader network of friends… It just doesn’t seem to add up.

Do you have any ideas for how you’d use disappearing posts? What could you possibly want to broadcast to your wider Facebook audience that you’d also want to make sure won’t be found after a given time period? Let us know your thoughts below in the comments section.

Of course if you did want to make posts disappear from your Facebook profile but still wanted to be able to look back and reflect on the original post and comments, then there’s not better way to preserve the original content than by backing it up with SocialSafe!