Facebook Now Testing Lightbox Gallery Display From Feed

Facebook is in the process of testing a new gallery display from within the feed by popping up a black lightbox and enabling users to view the album right there without leaving the page. It’s an interesting test as it could emphasize a large move toward enabling more interaction directly from the feed page, an area which already attracts a large percentage of the attention on Facebook.

The feature, which was first pointed out to us by Harsh Agarwal of CallingAllGeeks, is a significant change for Facebook. Then again, Facebook is the king of lightbox interfaces yet has refrained from large interfaces for products directly within those lightboxes. The latest version of lightbox interaction that I can recall is the ability to view a homepage video ad within a lightbox.

However this is a full-screen lightbox, something that Facebook has never implemented before. Whether or not this change will be pushed out to all users is unknown, however it’s definitely interesting to see Facebook teaching such a significant interface adjustment. Do you think this form of album interface would be useful?

See the full size screenshot here.

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1831941 Comments2010-09-02+18%3A52%3A05Nick+O%27Neill »

Nick – Nice find.

We are testing a number of different photo interfaces. This is one of the more radical ones. This test has been launched to a fraction of our user base so it's not likely that your readers have it.

The benefit of this interface is that the user can browse photos without loosing their context. It also (obviously) highlights the photo and downplays any distractions.

This test is a part of a broader shift within Facebook photos to prototype and test new interactions & products. It's possible that readers will see a number of new interfaces (many of which we'll never launch).

Comment by Sam Odio — September 2, 2010 @ 12:54 pm
I am not a fan of this new lightbox style photo preview, I like to go through my feed and command-click several photos from multiple people quickly which open them in new tabs. This no longer allows that. If possible could this be a feature that we the users can turn on and off? I would prefer off.

Comment by joel — September 7, 2010 @ 6:02 am
I am not a fan of this either. I can see it would be a good idea, but it's only been on my facebook a few days and already it is doing my nut in! A choice of having it on or off would be excellent!

Comment by Laura Emery — October 11, 2010 @ 8:00 am
How can u turn it off? I need to turn it off!

Comment by SeriousGUest — October 13, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
I hate this new lightbox effect! It shrinks photos to fit your screen, you cant go through your pics as quickly as before, you cant set an old profile picture to be your current one you have to reupload it, and lots of other annoying stuff! the old style with neutral background colour is much better.

Comment by elaine — October 14, 2010 @ 6:46 am
This "feature" crops off the bottoms of photos in Firefox on my Mac and doesn't allow right-clicking on my own photos. Is there a way to turn it off? It's very annoying.

Comment by Kitt — October 18, 2010 @ 11:53 pm
I rather hate waiting the light box to load, and some of us have computers more than 5 years old (probably millions of us) and they hate these lightboxes. Please put in an off option!

Comment by J Bodia — October 19, 2010 @ 6:30 pm
This feature has just started happening on my profile.

Absolutely hate it! it looks terrible and now apparently I can't even save images from facebook to edit and use as my profile picture.

It looks like another way of facebook sneaking a few more ads in to me.

Comment by Durkin (admin) — October 20, 2010 @ 11:46 am
Absolutely terrible! I want the old settings back, this shrinks the pictures and I can't save them to the desktop now. There are also problems with tags. Sometimes it also freezes up and I have to close the tab, thus losing what I was doing before. This is a classic example of fixing something that wasn't broken.

Comment by John VV — October 26, 2010 @ 10:00 pm
I HATE IT! How do you turn it off???

Comment by Tony — November 5, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
It is really, really bad. For the tab browsing issues mentioned above and also because you have to leap through hoops to direct link someone to an image >(

Comment by Bleh — November 8, 2010 @ 10:54 pm
the lightbox thing realii realii sucks… i hate it..

Comment by biz — November 27, 2010 @ 9:25 am
Can you just put it back to normal… how do we stop it happening ourselves??????
I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL.

Comment by Fluff — November 28, 2010 @ 2:38 am
It was a good concept but that where it ends. It shrinks pictures to fit the screen! They're already too small. Has anyone figured out how to remove it?

Comment by junko — January 18, 2011 @ 1:55 pm
it makes me nuts, how can i put it off?

Comment by chris — February 2, 2011 @ 6:52 pm
It's a piece of shit. Doesn't even work. Stays for a second and fades off automatically. Take it off.

Comment by Crackbook Addict — February 3, 2011 @ 9:20 pm
I have this right now as well, and I hate it. It feels slow nd clunky and not being able to save photos is extremely frustrating. Definitely DO NOT LIKE.

Comment by Daniele — February 4, 2011 @ 11:54 pm
i too, dislike it for all the reasons mentioned. but especially the ads! its like facebook police said how can we help yet another business target the public when they are at their leisure? oh when you are looking at photos of friends and loved ones. fuck sake.

Comment by charlee — February 5, 2011 @ 6:17 am
Absolutely horrible. Annoying, ugly and unnecessary. Can Facebook please stop changing it's features for once? If this carries on, it'll end up like MySpace.

Comment by thailainthesky — February 6, 2011 @ 6:35 am
dasdsadasdasas

Comment by sadasdas — February 9, 2011 @ 7:34 am
its so annoying terrible terrible

Comment by maverick — February 10, 2011 @ 12:26 am
Make it stop… anyone know how to turn it OFF?????????????????

Comment by Alex — February 10, 2011 @ 10:04 am
Last night I found out I was "included" in this new display of photos. I HATE it. It looks like an amateur trying to imitate Lightbox. It's not elegant, effective or usable to me. I never asked for it and wonder why they're dicking around with display when they could be doing so many other more important things. Some knucklehead developer out there thought THIS was a good idea???? Leave well enough alone and put it BACK the way it was. We have a hard enough time dealing with all the peculiarities of FB without changing something that was working well enough. DAMN!!!!!!!

Comment by dlw1433 — February 10, 2011 @ 10:07 am
This just started on my profile today, Its JUNK! Lightbox and similar scripts where designed more for gallery sites, not a social site where people just want to click through stuff quickly. Half the time the close button doesn't even work right. Disabling javascript brings back the old style, but makes it very hard to comment on anything.

Comment by jeicrash — February 10, 2011 @ 2:58 pm
This is reallllly bad. I don't bi%ch much with all the hideous changes FB is known for but this Lightbox shite is AWFUL.

WTF FB? You've got a staff of supposedly cutting edge programming talent and you're actually entertaining a primitive software of which only newbs and no talent personal website users implement? This is a huge step backwards for you. Do you have children working for you? Or did you give the Suits a day to "try their crack" at "site development?" It's burning my eyes it's so awful.

Of all the changes you've made this is sure to chase off a good number of your users. It's lightbox for Christ's sakes. I can turn this crap on on my website!

Comment by Child's Play — February 10, 2011 @ 8:48 pm
if they did this then they couldn't justify keeping all their staff… which would be fine. seriously. if they're relegating to childish lightbox then maybe it is time to downsize the "development" dept.

Comment by Child's Play — February 10, 2011 @ 8:51 pm
You suck Sam. Really, take your "co-workers of pointless purpose" and just go away.

Comment by Child's Play — February 10, 2011 @ 8:52 pm
Does Facebook care that the majority of users here hate the darn thing? LISTEN UP FACEBOOK, It was not BROKE so DON"T FIX IT! Please put it back or at least give us the option to turn the darn thing OFF.

Comment by Paul — February 11, 2011 @ 8:24 pm
Hey,

I'm a UI Developer, I'm not a fan of this at all. I was actually stunned and angered by it. I found the whole lightbox thing to be somewhat of a fad.

I would expect something fresh and exciting from the developers at facebook. Then again, for the average user this probably is the most amazing thing ever…

Comment by Joel — February 12, 2011 @ 4:26 pm
ITS VERY NICE SUT THE FUCK UP LOOSERS
its very nice , i can see a new comment whitou leaving the page i am on
damn guys u are soo old and stupid

Comment by Aromaticsea9 — February 13, 2011 @ 6:04 pm
i want it off. when will it stop?

Comment by steve — February 15, 2011 @ 5:11 pm
Yup. I don't like it at all. My girlfriend is complaining about it and is bitching at me about it. She's nagging and nagging at me to fix it. I do not work for Facebook. I can't fix sh*t. At least give the users the option to opt out.

Comment by Tim — February 15, 2011 @ 7:36 pm
Remove that crab ….its boring not working and unuseful ….. so removet it asap …. Greetz Roland

Comment by Roland — February 16, 2011 @ 10:12 am
Really bad, I cannot do anything else when showed, is not integrated, I really hate it and I don't have any option to disable it, if you do tests, give us the opportunity of not participate or not have it if we don't like it.
Moreover, how do you expect feedback, if you say nothing?

Comment by Tiparega — February 17, 2011 @ 12:33 pm
REMOVE IT!

Comment by NMC — February 19, 2011 @ 7:41 am
I hate it. At least I hated it. Now its just annoying.
And how the hell did they think making it with black borders? Where in the hell is there any black in facebooks design? Omg. It would be the easiest thing for facebook to make at least a nice design for the lightbox ? would that be to much to ask for?

But I can't see this benefiting anyone so why did they think about it ?

Comment by Daniel — February 24, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
It is causing several of my pictures to not display at all! Ones that displayed just fine before the switch was made. Now some of these pics are just blank black boxes. I hate this!!!

Comment by Jake — February 26, 2011 @ 12:56 pm
I want to torture and kill that lightbox thing. Piece of JUNK!

Comment by Rodrigo Zeba — February 28, 2011 @ 9:08 am
I FRICKIN HATE THIS STUPID ASS FEATURE. BTW IF YOU FIREFOX OR GOOGLE CHROME THERES PLUG INS U CAN DOWNLOAD TO PERMENANTLY REMOVE THIS FEATURE. BTW THE NEW FACEBOOK PROFILE LAYOUT SUCKS TOO. FACEBOOK NEEDS TO GIVE ITS USERS OPTION TO FORGO INCOMING CHANGES FFS.

Comment by boismyrealnamedamnit — March 1, 2011 @ 11:18 pm
I belong to a group of old photo enthusiasts. I join in and there are 10 to 30 notifications.I hit the bottom one and it takes me to that picture with the black box.Now I can't even see the notification button anymore so I have to F5 the black box away hit notification and find the next comment photo F5 all over again. What is wrong with you Facebook? Are you deliberately trying to annoy us, there are 5000 people in just our group and we are all mad about it. I checked and there are over 8 m users want the old back. Why do you IMPOSE changes. One of these days we'll leave you as soon as an alternative comes along.

Comment by Andrew Jordan — March 6, 2011 @ 1:36 am
Firefox user: use the addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fa...

Comment by Aljandro — June 6, 2011 @ 2:06 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Nick – Nice find.

We are testing a number of different photo interfaces. This is one of the more radical ones. This test has been launched to a fraction of our user base so it's not likely that your readers have it.

The benefit of this interface is that the user can browse photos without loosing their context. It also (obviously) highlights the photo and downplays any distractions.

This test is a part of a broader shift within Facebook photos to prototype and test new interactions & products. It's possible that readers will see a number of new interfaces (many of which we'll never launch).

Comment by Sam Odio — September 2, 2010 @ 12:54 pm

I am not a fan of this new lightbox style photo preview, I like to go through my feed and command-click several photos from multiple people quickly which open them in new tabs. This no longer allows that. If possible could this be a feature that we the users can turn on and off? I would prefer off.

Comment by joel — September 7, 2010 @ 6:02 am

I am not a fan of this either. I can see it would be a good idea, but it's only been on my facebook a few days and already it is doing my nut in! A choice of having it on or off would be excellent!

Comment by Laura Emery — October 11, 2010 @ 8:00 am

How can u turn it off? I need to turn it off!

Comment by SeriousGUest — October 13, 2010 @ 4:37 pm

I hate this new lightbox effect! It shrinks photos to fit your screen, you cant go through your pics as quickly as before, you cant set an old profile picture to be your current one you have to reupload it, and lots of other annoying stuff! the old style with neutral background colour is much better.

Comment by elaine — October 14, 2010 @ 6:46 am

This "feature" crops off the bottoms of photos in Firefox on my Mac and doesn't allow right-clicking on my own photos. Is there a way to turn it off? It's very annoying.

Comment by Kitt — October 18, 2010 @ 11:53 pm

I rather hate waiting the light box to load, and some of us have computers more than 5 years old (probably millions of us) and they hate these lightboxes. Please put in an off option!

Comment by J Bodia — October 19, 2010 @ 6:30 pm

This feature has just started happening on my profile.

Absolutely hate it! it looks terrible and now apparently I can't even save images from facebook to edit and use as my profile picture.

It looks like another way of facebook sneaking a few more ads in to me.

Comment by Durkin (admin) — October 20, 2010 @ 11:46 am

Absolutely terrible! I want the old settings back, this shrinks the pictures and I can't save them to the desktop now. There are also problems with tags. Sometimes it also freezes up and I have to close the tab, thus losing what I was doing before. This is a classic example of fixing something that wasn't broken.

Comment by John VV — October 26, 2010 @ 10:00 pm

I HATE IT! How do you turn it off???

Comment by Tony — November 5, 2010 @ 10:24 pm

It is really, really bad. For the tab browsing issues mentioned above and also because you have to leap through hoops to direct link someone to an image >(

Comment by Bleh — November 8, 2010 @ 10:54 pm

the lightbox thing realii realii sucks… i hate it..

Comment by biz — November 27, 2010 @ 9:25 am

Can you just put it back to normal… how do we stop it happening ourselves??????
I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL.

Comment by Fluff — November 28, 2010 @ 2:38 am

It was a good concept but that where it ends. It shrinks pictures to fit the screen! They're already too small. Has anyone figured out how to remove it?

Comment by junko — January 18, 2011 @ 1:55 pm

it makes me nuts, how can i put it off?

Comment by chris — February 2, 2011 @ 6:52 pm

It's a piece of shit. Doesn't even work. Stays for a second and fades off automatically. Take it off.

Comment by Crackbook Addict — February 3, 2011 @ 9:20 pm

I have this right now as well, and I hate it. It feels slow nd clunky and not being able to save photos is extremely frustrating. Definitely DO NOT LIKE.

Comment by Daniele — February 4, 2011 @ 11:54 pm

i too, dislike it for all the reasons mentioned. but especially the ads! its like facebook police said how can we help yet another business target the public when they are at their leisure? oh when you are looking at photos of friends and loved ones. fuck sake.

Comment by charlee — February 5, 2011 @ 6:17 am

Absolutely horrible. Annoying, ugly and unnecessary. Can Facebook please stop changing it's features for once? If this carries on, it'll end up like MySpace.

Comment by thailainthesky — February 6, 2011 @ 6:35 am

dasdsadasdasas

Comment by sadasdas — February 9, 2011 @ 7:34 am

its so annoying terrible terrible

Comment by maverick — February 10, 2011 @ 12:26 am

Make it stop… anyone know how to turn it OFF?????????????????

Comment by Alex — February 10, 2011 @ 10:04 am

Last night I found out I was "included" in this new display of photos. I HATE it. It looks like an amateur trying to imitate Lightbox. It's not elegant, effective or usable to me. I never asked for it and wonder why they're dicking around with display when they could be doing so many other more important things. Some knucklehead developer out there thought THIS was a good idea???? Leave well enough alone and put it BACK the way it was. We have a hard enough time dealing with all the peculiarities of FB without changing something that was working well enough. DAMN!!!!!!!

Comment by dlw1433 — February 10, 2011 @ 10:07 am

This just started on my profile today, Its JUNK! Lightbox and similar scripts where designed more for gallery sites, not a social site where people just want to click through stuff quickly. Half the time the close button doesn't even work right. Disabling javascript brings back the old style, but makes it very hard to comment on anything.

Comment by jeicrash — February 10, 2011 @ 2:58 pm

This is reallllly bad. I don't bi%ch much with all the hideous changes FB is known for but this Lightbox shite is AWFUL.

WTF FB? You've got a staff of supposedly cutting edge programming talent and you're actually entertaining a primitive software of which only newbs and no talent personal website users implement? This is a huge step backwards for you. Do you have children working for you? Or did you give the Suits a day to "try their crack" at "site development?" It's burning my eyes it's so awful.

Of all the changes you've made this is sure to chase off a good number of your users. It's lightbox for Christ's sakes. I can turn this crap on on my website!

Comment by Child's Play — February 10, 2011 @ 8:48 pm

if they did this then they couldn't justify keeping all their staff… which would be fine. seriously. if they're relegating to childish lightbox then maybe it is time to downsize the "development" dept.

Comment by Child's Play — February 10, 2011 @ 8:51 pm

You suck Sam. Really, take your "co-workers of pointless purpose" and just go away.

Comment by Child's Play — February 10, 2011 @ 8:52 pm

Does Facebook care that the majority of users here hate the darn thing? LISTEN UP FACEBOOK, It was not BROKE so DON"T FIX IT! Please put it back or at least give us the option to turn the darn thing OFF.

Comment by Paul — February 11, 2011 @ 8:24 pm

Hey,

I'm a UI Developer, I'm not a fan of this at all. I was actually stunned and angered by it. I found the whole lightbox thing to be somewhat of a fad.

I would expect something fresh and exciting from the developers at facebook. Then again, for the average user this probably is the most amazing thing ever…

Comment by Joel — February 12, 2011 @ 4:26 pm

ITS VERY NICE SUT THE FUCK UP LOOSERS
its very nice , i can see a new comment whitou leaving the page i am on
damn guys u are soo old and stupid

Comment by Aromaticsea9 — February 13, 2011 @ 6:04 pm

i want it off. when will it stop?

Comment by steve — February 15, 2011 @ 5:11 pm

Yup. I don't like it at all. My girlfriend is complaining about it and is bitching at me about it. She's nagging and nagging at me to fix it. I do not work for Facebook. I can't fix sh*t. At least give the users the option to opt out.

Comment by Tim — February 15, 2011 @ 7:36 pm

Remove that crab ….its boring not working and unuseful ….. so removet it asap …. Greetz Roland

Comment by Roland — February 16, 2011 @ 10:12 am

Really bad, I cannot do anything else when showed, is not integrated, I really hate it and I don't have any option to disable it, if you do tests, give us the opportunity of not participate or not have it if we don't like it.
Moreover, how do you expect feedback, if you say nothing?

Comment by Tiparega — February 17, 2011 @ 12:33 pm

REMOVE IT!

Comment by NMC — February 19, 2011 @ 7:41 am

I hate it. At least I hated it. Now its just annoying.
And how the hell did they think making it with black borders? Where in the hell is there any black in facebooks design? Omg. It would be the easiest thing for facebook to make at least a nice design for the lightbox ? would that be to much to ask for?

But I can't see this benefiting anyone so why did they think about it ?

Comment by Daniel — February 24, 2011 @ 3:40 pm

It is causing several of my pictures to not display at all! Ones that displayed just fine before the switch was made. Now some of these pics are just blank black boxes. I hate this!!!

Comment by Jake — February 26, 2011 @ 12:56 pm

I want to torture and kill that lightbox thing. Piece of JUNK!

Comment by Rodrigo Zeba — February 28, 2011 @ 9:08 am

I FRICKIN HATE THIS STUPID ASS FEATURE. BTW IF YOU FIREFOX OR GOOGLE CHROME THERES PLUG INS U CAN DOWNLOAD TO PERMENANTLY REMOVE THIS FEATURE. BTW THE NEW FACEBOOK PROFILE LAYOUT SUCKS TOO. FACEBOOK NEEDS TO GIVE ITS USERS OPTION TO FORGO INCOMING CHANGES FFS.

Comment by boismyrealnamedamnit — March 1, 2011 @ 11:18 pm

I belong to a group of old photo enthusiasts. I join in and there are 10 to 30 notifications.I hit the bottom one and it takes me to that picture with the black box.Now I can't even see the notification button anymore so I have to F5 the black box away hit notification and find the next comment photo F5 all over again. What is wrong with you Facebook? Are you deliberately trying to annoy us, there are 5000 people in just our group and we are all mad about it. I checked and there are over 8 m users want the old back. Why do you IMPOSE changes. One of these days we'll leave you as soon as an alternative comes along.

Comment by Andrew Jordan — March 6, 2011 @ 1:36 am

Firefox user: use the addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fa...

Comment by Aljandro — June 6, 2011 @ 2:06 pm

Facebook Now Testing Lightbox Gallery Display From Feed

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1831941 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.allfacebook.com%2Ffacebook-now-testing-lightbox-gallery-display-from-feed-2010-09Facebook+Now+Testing+Lightbox+Gallery+Display+From+Feed2010-09-02+18%3A52%3A05Nick+O%27Neillhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.allfacebook.com%2F%3Fp%3D18319 »

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Jobs of the Day

Digital Strategist

Digital/Social Media Manager - Entertainment

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See all jobs

Upcoming Events

1831941 Comments2010-09-02+18%3A52%3A05Nick+O%27Neill »