Facebook's Star Wars Profile Picture Filter Lets You Hold a Lightsaber

Following Google’s lead, Facebook is now allowing its users to prominently showcase their support to their preferred faction in the Star Wars universe - choosing the Light side or the Dark side. The social juggernaut is allowing users to add a filter to their profile picture. Star Wars: Force Awakens hits theatres from Friday around the world.

Facebook is now allowing users to add Star Wars filters to their profile picture, adding either the red lightsaber used by Kylo Ren or the blue lightsaber used by Finn. The filter is added to your profile picture for a pre-specified period, after which it would revert to your old picture.

The ability to temporarily show support for something using the profile picture by adding filter is the same as recently used in causes and sports fandom by Facebook, including famously for showing support for the Digital India initiative. Users can add the filter by visiting the announcement photo on the Facebook Star Wars page and clicking on the Try it button.

A user gets to do simple editing to the profile picture before finalising the filter. For instance, there is a quick option to change the profile picture should you not want to add a filter to your current profile photo. You can also drag the position your profile picture to adjust positioning.

Facebook is not the only tech giant trying to milk benefits from the massive fanbase of one of the biggest movie franchises. Last month, Google also allowed users to customise themes on their favourite Google apps and services to reflect their Star Wars preference. The company also later added support for Aurabesh language in Google Translate. We’ve also seen several games add Star Wars-esque levels.