Facebook has released a new feature that lets you upload photos and status updates to your timeline by email…oh wait, no they haven’t, you’ve been able to do that for ages, but if you’re not using it then you should be.
If you can remember back before the era of smartphones, when mobile browsing was as limited as much by data connection speeds as it was by the poor state of mobile browsers then you’ll remember that being able to upload content to various sites by email was not just a nifty feature but an absolute requirement.
Now, with instant uploads and faster mobile surfing speeds posting your comments, photos and videos by email seems antiquated.
And it is, but it’s still useful.
There are a few reasons why you’d want to use email rather than the site/app – you have a slow data connection speed; you couldn’t be bothered logging into Facebook on your phone; or, perhaps most importantly, you don’t want your boss/partner/friends seeing that you’re on Facebook.
To upload your updates and images to Facebook you first need to find your unique email address. Since this system was designed for old-fashioned mobile browsers the easiest way is to visit Facebook’s mobile site.
You’ll have to be careful with this – since Facebook will upload any image/comment emailed to this address if your friends find out what it is they could post random photos on your timeline as if they were you. So, don’t cc your friends when posting anything to Facebook using this system – you might end up with some explaining to do on later on.
To upload a photo just attach an image to an email and give the email a subject, this will be used as the image’s status/description. To post a status update without an image just email the address and the subject will be used as your status (you might have to remove your email’s signature to do this).
So, with this you can be on Facebook as much as you want without getting into trouble with your boss; or worse, your partner.