Facebook announced it will soon launch a new feature that will allow users to post 3D photos. Source: Alphr

Facebook, one of the largest social media companies in the world, has always been determined to improve user experience. The company has recently launched several new features and there’s yet another one in the pipeline. Facebook announced during the F8 developer conference that it will soon launch a new feature that will allow users to post 3D photos on Facebook’s news feed.

The announcement was very low key so we don’t really know how it will work, what will be the restrictions or limitations, and more importantly, how will people be able to capture 3D photos. But Facebook sees this as the next innovation for its platform and if we have learned anything about the company over the years, it’s that it can really make the impossible work. So, you’d better get ready to see 3D photos popping up on your feed very soon.

The 3D photo effect is quite breathtaking. Source: Spar 3D

The 3D photo effect is quite breathtaking. The demos we have looked at so far are mind-blowing. But there are of course a number of limitations. First, the so-called “3D” photos are not 3D in the real sense of the word. Yes, they are close but not quite. Facebook also announced that it will be launching what it called 3D Memories. This feature too was announced during the F8 keynote.

The concept is pretty simple and sophisticated at the same time. Facebook says that 3D Memories will turn your old flat 2D photos into spatial point clouds. The clouds are designed to give Facebook users a unique ethereal sense of the specific locations these photos or videos were taken. It’s possible too that the proposed 3D feature could leverage on Facebook’s machine learning technology. Presumably, people will still be able to upload regular 2D photos but they will now have the option to post in 3D as well.

According to tech experts, Facebook has taken way too long to release this feature. Source: Daily Mail

But this is plain speculation. A lot may be revealed regarding the new feature in the coming months. Besides, Facebook already provides support for 360-degree photos on its platform. The same capabilities apply to videos too and they all appear on news feed. Now it seems that the company has the technology to facilitate 3D photos. In fact, according to tech experts, Facebook has taken way too long to release this feature.

Although the F8 developer conference tends to be a platform where new and innovative ideas are announced, it does take some time before these new features are actually released. We don’t expect anything different from the 3D photos. Although it’s something we are looking forward to, it won’t be a surprise if it takes months or even years before the feature becomes fully available. Nonetheless, there’s no doubt that this is yet another major step by Facebook to take the overall user experience on its platform to a whole new level.