Facebook Updates Profile Options for Mobile Users, Adds Profile Videos

Facebook rolled out updates to mobile profile pages to enable users to better personalize their profiles and more easily control their privacy settings.

Facebook has sought to improve and ease its mobile profile experience as it makes more of its $10 billion-plus in annual ad revenue off of phones. The updates also come during New York City's 12th Advertising Week, where Facebook is courting the world's largest advertisers and companies.

Among the new features are profile videos, or a short looping video clip that users can create in place of a static profile picture. The feature is similar to Vine, a video sharing app owned by Twitter Inc.

Users can also set a temporary profile picture that reverts to their old picture at a specified time. Those who want to support a sports team or charitable cause for a specific week, for example, can choose a picture to display for a short time period.

Facebook also introduced more ways to control privacy settings so that users can curate what pieces of information are public and which are only viewable to "friends," or people that they have allowed to view profiles.

Facebook explained the move in a blog post, saying, "People visit Facebook profiles more than four billion times per day, and we're continually looking for ways to make profiles the best place for people to curate their online identities and connect with others... Today, we're unveiling some new, mobile-friendly features for Facebook profiles. There are three main improvements that will give you more opportunities to express who you are and control the content showcased on your profile."

Edited by Gadgets 360 staff from original story by Reuters