What Will Happen to Your Facebook When You Pass Away?
Did you think about what will happen to your Facebook account when you pass away? You’re still young, in the prime of your life, so why should you think about something like that?
Facebook did think about what will happen to an account once the account holder passes away. That is why a “memorialized accounts” feature is in place and that is why it introduced a new “legacy account” feature.
Friends and family can request that your account be memorialized once you pass away. A legacy contact can manage your account after you pass away.
The whole thing works something like this. When you pass away, someone has to let Facebook know about it. Once Facebook knows that you passed away, it will memorialize your account. You can select a legacy contact (a family member, your spouse, a trusted friend) to manage your account once you pass away.
The legacy contact can perform the following actions:
Please note that memorialized accounts that don't have a legacy contact can't be changed.
“Facebook is a place to share and connect with friends and family. For many of us, it’s also a place to remember and honor those we’ve lost. When a person passes away, their account can become a memorial of their life, friendships and experiences,” explained Vanessa Callison-Burch, Product Manager, Jasmine Probst, Content Strategist and Mark Govea, Software Engineer.
“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,” they added.
Facebook is rolling out the "legacy contact" feature in the US first. Support for more countries will be added in the future.
Facebook did think about what will happen to an account once the account holder passes away. That is why a “memorialized accounts” feature is in place and that is why it introduced a new “legacy account” feature.
Friends and family can request that your account be memorialized once you pass away. A legacy contact can manage your account after you pass away.
The whole thing works something like this. When you pass away, someone has to let Facebook know about it. Once Facebook knows that you passed away, it will memorialize your account. You can select a legacy contact (a family member, your spouse, a trusted friend) to manage your account once you pass away.
The legacy contact can perform the following actions:
- Write a post that will be displayed on your timeline.
- Respond to new friend requests.
- Update the profile picture and cover photo.
- Download an archive of photos, posts, and profile information.
Please note that memorialized accounts that don't have a legacy contact can't be changed.
“Facebook is a place to share and connect with friends and family. For many of us, it’s also a place to remember and honor those we’ve lost. When a person passes away, their account can become a memorial of their life, friendships and experiences,” explained Vanessa Callison-Burch, Product Manager, Jasmine Probst, Content Strategist and Mark Govea, Software Engineer.
“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,” they added.
Facebook is rolling out the "legacy contact" feature in the US first. Support for more countries will be added in the future.
