Meta has introduced a new opt-in feature for Facebook users in the US and Canada that promises to make your photos and videos more “shareworthy.” The twist? It’s not for the photos you’ve already uploaded — it’s for the ones still sitting in your phone’s camera roll.
If you enable the feature, Meta’s AI will scan your unpublished photos, upload them to Meta’s cloud, and highlight what it calls “hidden gems” — the moments buried between screenshots, receipts, and random snaps. From there, you can choose to save or share the AI’s suggested edits and collages.
This may sound familiar — Meta tested something similar earlier this year. Back in June, the company assured users that their private, unposted photos weren’t being used to train Meta’s AI. However, it carefully avoided saying that it wouldn’t change in the future.
What Facebook’s Latest statement says.
Fast forward to now, and it appears that “future” has arrived. Meta’s latest statement suggests that the company may indeed use your photos to train its AI, but only under specific conditions. According to Meta’s Friday announcement:
Also Read: Instagram’s Map Just Got Smarter — and a Little Clearer
Also Read: Why Instagram Is Prioritising a Reels-First Feed In India?
“We don’t use media from your camera roll to improve AI at Meta, unless you choose to edit this media with our AI tools, or share.”
When The Verge pressed for details, Meta spokesperson Mari Melguizo clarified:
“The camera roll media uploaded by this feature to make suggestions won’t be used to improve AI at Meta. Only if you edit the suggestions with our AI tools or publish those suggestions to Facebook, improvements to AI at Meta may be made.”
In other words, Meta’s servers will store your photos in the cloud, and its AI will analyse them — but the company claims it won’t use those files for AI training unless you actively edit or share the content. For now, at least.
According to Meta, the feature “will select media from your camera roll and upload it to our cloud on an ongoing basis.” Earlier reports also noted that Meta may keep some of this data for longer than 30 days. The company insists, however, that your photos “won’t be used for ad targeting.”
This move comes after Meta quietly admitted last year that it had already trained its AI models on all public photos and text shared by adult users across Facebook and Instagram since 2007.
The company’s blog post shows that users will be prompted to “allow cloud processing to get creative ideas made for you from your camera roll.” What’s still unclear is whether that message will explicitly mention that these photos could help train Meta’s AI.
Meta says the feature is aimed at people who love taking photos but want a little help enhancing them before posting — or simply don’t have time to “create something special.” The rollout is expected to reach more users over the coming months.
