[gknoy]

Facebook's "X years ago today, you posted this ..." has been amazing. I don't usually re-share it but it really brightens my morning or day to see photos of my kids when they were 4-5 years younger, and marvel at how much they've grown.

I mean, I'd still think about that even without FB showing me things, but I would not have managed to build a "here's a flashback!" photo-reminder system. In an age when we take SO MANY PHOTOS (and don't even bother curating them because we don't have time for it), it's nice to have that too.

[mdekkers]

Facebook's "X years ago today, you posted this ..." has been amazing

I can see your point but it isn't relevant to the article, and also, it is a matter of perspective. I managed to permanently disable it, after it kept popping up photos of my then-recently deceased spouse. Not something I was ready to deal with, and after switching it off, FB helpfully turned it back on for me. I eventually managed to disable it permanently, but if there is one thing I hate it is for some software to treat my instructions as suggestions.

[magnetic]

> I mean, I'd still think about that even without FB showing me things, but I would not have managed to build a "here's a flashback!" photo-reminder system.

You wouldn't have had to if you used macOS with the Photos app. Every once in a while it notifies me about a flashback, and if I click on the notification it takes me to a flashback slideshow in the Photos app.

I don't use iCloud for my photos, so I suspect this is implemented locally without having to give my data to Apple.

Maybe similar systems exist with other environments (linux, Windows, etc).

[alasdair_]

Is there a way to disable that feature out of interest?