Facebook is testing a way to allow users to have up to five separate profiles tied to a single account.
Facebook announced it would soon allow users to have up to five separate profiles tied to a single account.
In a press release, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network revealed that the new feature will allow people to have different profiles dedicated to different groups of people, such as one profile exclusively dedicated to their friends and another just for their colleagues. The company says that creating and switching between profiles will be extremely simple.
To help people personalise their experience based on interests and relationships, we’re testing a way to allow them to have more than one profile tied to a single Facebook account.
Specifically, users will be able to create up to five different profiles linked to the main account. Additional profiles do not have to include the person’s real name, as long as it does not contain numbers or special characters.
This is a big move compared to Facebook’s current policy, which states that creating more than one personal profile on the social network is against the platform’s standards.
The company says additional profiles are still subject to its policies. If one of the profiles is reported, the report will impact all other profiles. Facebook says this rule will help prevent people from abusing the platform. If someone repeatedly violates the company’s policies by using one of their additional profiles, Facebook’s systems will recognize which profile they were violating and take appropriate measures, such as removing the additional profile or all profiles, including the main account.
Facebook states that some parts of the platform are only available to users’ main profiles, such as creating and managing a Page or using Facebook Dating.
So far, the company has prevented users from having multiple Facebook accounts, so the introduction of additional profiles marks a major change for the social media giant. The launch of the test indicates that the social network is experimenting with new ways to increase engagement on its platform, while also encouraging users to post and share more content with others.
Do we really need this feature?
Other social networks like Instagram and Twitter already offer ways to separate content that can only be seen by selected users, which is becoming a concern as some users don’t want their personal content shown to, for example, co-workers.
In fact, Facebook has been offering similar functionality for years, allowing us to create and select groups of friends who can see a specific post, photo or video. Having multiple profiles makes this process more intuitive and organized, but the company’s intentions seem to be more related to the fact that the social network has lost users to competitors like TikTok.
In February, Facebook shares fell more than 20% due to the company’s “disappointing” results from the previous fiscal quarter. In addition to lower-than-expected revenues, the social network also recorded a reduction in the number of active users.
Now Facebook is looking for new ways to make its platform interesting for people again. But although the company wants people to create more profiles on the social network, users seem to be more interested in leaving Facebook permanently.
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