Meta is betting that artificial intelligence can solve one of social media’s most common dilemmas: figuring out what to post. The company has rolled out a new opt-in feature for Facebook users in the United States and Canada that uses AI to scan your phone’s camera roll and suggest which photos and videos are worth sharing with your friends and followers.
But this isn’t just about convenience. The feature raises important questions about privacy, data usage, and how much access we’re willing to give tech companies to our personal content even the stuff we never intended to share publicly.
How the Feature Actually Works
The new tool, which Meta announced on Friday, promises to surface “hidden gems” from your camera roll that might be “lost among screenshots, receipts, and random snaps.” Once you opt in, Meta’s AI will continuously upload media from your phone to the company’s cloud servers, where it analyzes your photos and videos to determine which ones might make the best posts.
The suggestions appear directly in your Facebook Feed, Stories, and Memories sections. But they remain private until you actively choose to share them. The AI doesn’t just pick photos it can also recommend creative edits or suggest ways to combine multiple images into collages.
According to Digital Trends, Meta AI will upload media to its cloud “on an ongoing basis,” continuously analyzing your gallery to identify shareable content. The feature is designed to help users who love taking photos but struggle with the time-consuming process of sorting through hundreds of images to find the perfect ones to post.
The Privacy Catch: What Meta Can and Can’t Do With Your Photos
Here’s where things get complicated. When The Verge first reported on an early test of this feature back in June, Meta declined to rule out whether it would use unpublished photos from users’ camera rolls to train its AI models. Now that the feature has officially launched, the company has provided more clarity but the answer might not reassure everyone.
In its Friday announcement, Meta stated: “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 clarification, Meta spokesperson Mari Melguizo explained: “This means 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.”
Let’s break that down. Meta’s AI will collect and store your photos in the cloud, and the company’s algorithms will analyze them to make suggestions. However, according to Meta, those photos won’t be used to train the company’s AI systems unless you take an additional action, such as using Meta’s editing tools on the suggested content or actually posting the suggestions to Facebook.
It’s worth noting that Meta has a track record of using user content for AI training. Last year, the company acknowledged that it had quietly trained its AI models on all public photos and text posted to Facebook and Instagram by adult users dating back to 2007. The difference here is that the new feature deals with private, unpublished content from your camera roll.
Meta also claims that your camera roll media “won’t be used for ad targeting,” which addresses another common privacy concern. However, the company did announce separately that it will begin using your AI chats and interactions to personalize your ads starting in December.
How to Turn the Feature On (or Make Sure It’s Off)
The good news for privacy-conscious users is that this feature is opt-in, meaning it’s turned off by default. Meta can’t access your camera roll unless you explicitly give permission. CNET confirmed exclusively with Meta that the feature is available now for US and Canadian users, with testing in other countries planned for “the coming months.”
If you want to enable the feature or check to make sure it’s disabled here’s how:
- Open your Facebook app and tap the Menu button in the bottom right corner
- Tap the gear icon in the upper-right corner, or scroll down to “Settings & privacy” and navigate to “Settings”
- Look for “Camera roll sharing suggestions”
- Find the option that says “Get creative ideas made for you by allowing camera roll cloud processing”
- The toggle should be gray with the circle on the left if the feature is off. If it’s blue with the circle on the right, the feature is on
Facebook’s blog shows that users will be asked if they want to “allow cloud processing to get creative ideas made for you from your camera roll.” However, it’s not yet clear whether that initial prompt will explicitly warn users that the feature may train Meta’s AI on their photos if they use the editing tools or share the suggestions.
Who Is This Feature Really For?
Meta positions this tool as a solution for people who enjoy taking photos but either want to improve them before posting or don’t have time to “create something special.” It’s targeting the common scenario where you return from a vacation or event with hundreds of photos and videos, fully intending to share the best ones, but feeling overwhelmed by the sorting process.
In theory, the feature could save time and reduce decision fatigue. Even if you don’t agree with all of Meta AI’s selections, it could provide a useful starting point for curating a post or Story. The AI might spot a great candid shot you overlooked or suggest a creative way to combine photos that wouldn’t have occurred to you.
But there’s another angle to consider. By making it easier to post content, Meta is encouraging more frequent sharing on Facebook which ultimately benefits the company by keeping users engaged on the platform and generating more content for other users to interact with. More posts mean more time spent on Facebook, which translates to more opportunities for Meta to serve ads.
The Broader Context: Meta’s AI Ambitions
This camera roll feature is just one piece of Meta’s larger push into artificial intelligence. The company has been aggressively integrating AI across its family of apps, from Instagram to WhatsApp to Facebook itself.
Recent months have seen a flurry of AI-related updates to Facebook. The platform recently updated its algorithm to prioritize newer, fresher Reels. It introduced friend bubbles similar to those on Instagram, and launched an AI-powered search tool that highlights popular search queries at the bottom of trending videos. The company also revived a 2022 feature that lets users see local job postings on Facebook.
Meta has been transparent about its intention to use user data to improve its AI systems. The company’s approach seems to be: collect as much data as possible from public posts and user interactions, while being more cautious about private content at least until users take actions that could be interpreted as consent.
What Happens to Your Data?
One lingering question is how long Meta holds onto the camera roll photos it uploads to its cloud servers. When The Verge asked about this during the June testing phase, Meta indicated that it might retain some of that data for longer than 30 days, though the company didn’t provide specific timeframes.
The feature description states that it will “select media from your camera roll and upload it to our cloud on an ongoing basis.” This suggests a continuous process rather than a one-time upload, which means Meta’s servers could potentially store a significant portion of your camera roll over time even photos you never intended to share publicly.
For users concerned about data security, this raises questions about what happens if Meta’s servers are breached, or if the company’s policies change in the future. While Meta says it won’t use the photos for AI training or ad targeting under current conditions, privacy policies can be updated, and users might not always notice when terms change.
The Trust Factor
The success of this feature will likely depend on how much users trust Meta with their personal content. The company has faced numerous privacy scandals over the years, from the Cambridge Analytica debacle to various data breaches and controversies over how it handles user information.
For some users, the convenience of AI-powered photo suggestions will outweigh privacy concerns, especially given that the feature is opt-in. For others, the idea of Meta’s algorithms analyzing their entire camera roll including personal photos, screenshots, and other content never meant for public consumption will be a dealbreaker, regardless of the company’s assurances about data usage.
Looking Ahead
Meta says it plans to begin testing this feature in additional countries “in the coming months,” suggesting a gradual global rollout. It’s also possible that a similar feature could eventually come to Instagram, Meta’s other photo-centric platform where users frequently share images and Stories.
The camera roll suggestion feature represents a new frontier in how social media companies interact with our personal content. It’s no longer just about what we choose to post it’s about giving AI systems access to everything on our devices so they can make recommendations about what we should post.
Whether this represents a helpful innovation or an overreach into our private digital lives likely depends on your perspective. What’s clear is that as AI becomes more sophisticated, the line between our private content and what we share publicly is becoming increasingly blurred and tech companies are eager to position themselves on both sides of that line.
The Bottom Line
Facebook’s new AI-powered photo suggestion feature offers genuine convenience for users who struggle with content curation. But it comes with trade-offs that every user should understand before opting in. Your unpublished photos will be uploaded to Meta’s cloud servers and analyzed by AI algorithms. While Meta promises not to use them for AI training or ad targeting under most circumstances, there are exceptions particularly if you use the platform’s editing tools or share the suggested content.
The feature is off by default, which is a win for user privacy. But as with many tech features, the devil is in the details. Users should carefully consider whether the convenience of AI-powered suggestions is worth giving Meta access to their entire camera roll, and they should understand exactly what they’re agreeing to before toggling that switch.
As AI continues to reshape social media, features like this will become more common. The question isn’t whether AI will play a role in what we post it’s how much control we’re willing to cede to algorithms in exchange for convenience. For now, at least, Facebook is letting users make that choice for themselves.
Sources
- The Verge: Facebook’s new button lets its AI look at photos you haven’t uploaded yet
- Digital Trends: Facebook’s AI now helps you pick your best photos and videos
- CNET: Facebook’s New Feature Can Scan Your Camera Roll to Tell You What to Post
- Meta: New Facebook Feature Suggests Edits and Collages to Share
