Facebook's latest app certainly isn't for everyone.
The social networking giant has issued an apology for the grief its Year in Review feature has caused some users.
The preview feature, which uses a computer algorithm to automatically generate a summary post showing members' most-engaged-with images and statuses from 2014, has been met with a flurry of complaints from people who saw things from the past 12 months they would rather not be reminded of.
Eric Meyer, a writer and web design consultant who lost his six-year-old daughter Rebecca to brain cancer this year, was one of those who did not appreciate the Facebook feature.
Meyer wrote in a blog post," I know, of course, that this is not a deliberate assault. This inadvertent algorithmic cruelty is the result of code that works in the overwhelming majority of cases, reminding people of the awesomeness of their years ...
"But for those of us who lived through the death of loved ones, or spent extended time in the hospital, or were hit by divorce or losing a job or any one of a hundred crises, we might not want another look at this past year.
"To show me Rebecca's face and say "Here's what your year looked like!" is jarring. It feels wrong, and coming from an actual person, it would be wrong. Coming from code, it's just unfortunate."
Though aware that Facebook did not intentionally seek to bring up his painful memories, Meyer argues that the developers and programmers behind the app have failed to consider "the failure modes, the edge cases, the worst-case scenarios."
He wrote, "In creating this Year in Review app, there wasn't enough thought given to cases like mine ... or anyone who had a bad year. The design is for the ideal user, the happy, upbeat, good-life user. It doesn't take other use cases into account."
Meyer proposed two fixes that he believes would have prevented all complaints with the app.
"First, don't pre-fill a picture until you're sure the user actually wants to see pictures from their year," he stated. "And second, instead of pushing the app at people, maybe ask them if they'd like to try a preview—just a simple yes or no."
Jonathan Gheller, the app's Facebook product manager, has personally reached out to Meyer to apologise.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Gheller said, ""[The app] was awesome for a lot of people, but clearly in this case we brought him grief rather than joy."
According to Gheller, the team behind the app were taking Meyer's concerns into account to improve the feature for next time.
"It's valuable feedback," Gheller said. "We can do better. I'm very grateful he took the time in his grief to write the blog post."
