NEW YORK — When someone passes away, their Facebook page can live on — forever. The page tends to become a place where friends and family of the deceased leave messages destined to go unanswered. But that could change though with Facebook’s latest update. Facebook is now letting users choose a legacy contact. That person will be allowed to manage their family member or friend’s account once they pass away. If you’d rather your Facebook page die with you, you can select that option too and your page will be permanently deleted upon your death.
So how do you pick your legacy contact? Here are instructions straight from Facebook.
Open your settings. Choose Security and then Legacy Contact at the bottom of the page.
After choosing your legacy contact, you’ll have the option to send a message to that person.
You may give your legacy contact permission to download an archive of the posts, photos and profile info you’ve shared on Facebook.
We’ve also redesigned memorialized profiles to pay tribute to the deceased by adding “Remembering” above their name and making it possible for their legacy contact to pin a post to the top of their Timeline.
So what exactly can your legacy contact do on your Facebook page once you’re gone?
- Write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline (for example, to announce a memorial service or share a special message)
- Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook
- Update the profile picture and cover photo
- Download an archive of the photos, posts and profile information shared on Facebook.
“Other settings will remain the same as before the account was memorialized. The legacy contact will not be able to log in as the person who passed away or see that person’s private messages,” Facebook developers announced. ” Until now, when someone passed away, we offered a basic memorialized account which was viewable, but could not be managed by anyone. By talking to people who have experienced loss, we realized there is more we can do to support those who are grieving and those who want a say in what happens to their account after death.”
Are you excited to pass on your Facebook page or would you rather take it to the grave? Click here to email me.
