Facebook’s new photo-syncing tool

Facebook just caught up with Google+, Dropbox, and its own little sib Instagram (which it acquired last spring) where photo-uploading convenience is concerned. [I’ve found photo-sharing much easier and more fun since my kid introduced me to Instagram last summer.] My ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid explains here how to use the new Photo Sync feature in your Facebook app to upload photos from your phone to your Facebook account. It’s really just an easy way to sync up your phone photos with your Facebook albums, and it works on either an iPhone or an Android phone. “Don’t worry about accidentally posting embarrassing photos,” Larry writes. There’s nothing automatic about actual photo-sharing; it’s opt-in. “When you enable sync, photos wind up in a holding area and are invisible to all but yourself until you decide to share them,” he continues.

Over in the UK, The Independent gets a little snarky with the doomsayers: “Calm down people, it’s just Facebook catching up with the competition again,” it reports. “Google+ has supported instant photo uploading since its inception over 16 months ago. Dropbox, the popular cloud storage service, has also been providing photo upload functionality in its mobile apps since April of this year. In both cases the features have been well received and are used regularly by many users.”