Facebook 'On This Day': new feature takes on Timehop with automated nostalgia

Update allows users to see what they posted “on this day” one, two, three or more years ago

Facebook has launched a new feature that will let users relive moments that happened on this day in years before.

The update, called On This Day, allows people to see posts they made and were tagged in on the site, one, two or more years ago. People will only be able to see their own past posts.

The moments can be seen using Facebook’s page for the feature, and it can be accessed through a link in the mobile and desktop apps. But it hasn’t rolled out to everyone, and following that link could lead to an error message until it does.

Once users sign up, they can register to receive notifications every day, telling them that new messages from the past are viewable.

The feature has actually been tested for a number of years, but Facebook officially announced it yesterday and said that it would roll out to everybody.

The app has a number of safeguards to keep the moments happy — it won’t show updates containing people with whom your relationship status has changed with since, and it won’t show anything that includes people that Facebook knows has died in the last year.

The update looks set to take on Timehop, a mobile app that has a similar function but pulls information from Twitter as well. That app also gives users daily reminders of what they were up to in the years since, allowing them to then post that information onto social networks.