Facebook Legacy Contact, A Feature That Turns Over an Account to a Loved One When a User Has Passed

Legacy Contact is a new feature from Facebook that lets users name a friend or family member to manage their account in the event that they pass away, turning the page over to the loved one for use as a memorial. Legacy Contacts can write a post at the top of the timeline, update the profile picture and respond to friend requests.

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.

Users can also choose to simply have their Facebook account deleted in the event of their death.

image via Facebook Newsroom