Facebook Rolls Out Multiple Personal Profiles Feature – Facebook is introducing the ability to have multiple personal profiles that you can seamlessly switch between, without the requirement of logging out and logging back in. Interestingly, these extra profiles are not obligated to use your actual name. It’s a departure from the time when Facebook emphasized the use of real names, a practice that might have faded from memory as usernames once ruled, allowing for a degree of anonymity.
Facebook is now revisiting this approach, albeit not entirely abandoning the use of real identities, as it introduces support for multiple profiles. To be clear, Facebook says your main profile still needs to be your real identity: “Our longstanding policy on Account Integrity and Authentic Identity states that your main Facebook profile must be in the name you go by in everyday life — and this is not changing. You can choose any name for your additional profiles, but not for your main profile.”
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Yes, everything is fair game once you get past that main profile. And to some extent, that makes sense. You may want to keep your personal life and professional life separate, after all. Facebook’s announcement showed someone with a personal profile under “Benta Othman” and a secondary account called “Bente Bakes.” That’s clear enough on which is which.
In such a situation, you’d have the convenience of sharing personal updates and photos with your family, while also keeping your small business customers informed about the latest developments. In this regard, it closely resembles Pages, which, when configured appropriately, can function in a manner akin to personal profiles.
But there’s nothing in Facebook’s announcement to suggest you can’t use a fake name for your additional profiles, and indeed, as quoted above, it’s only holding you to a real name on the main profile. Facebook’s suggestion for a secondary profile is one to interact with friends and another to interact with the “foodie scene you love.” It’s easy to imagine a second profile with a fake name for worse uses.
Every profile possesses its unique notification and privacy configurations. When establishing a new identity, it commences with default settings rather than adopting the choices of your primary profile. Initially, some limitations apply to the additional accounts, with features like Dating, Marketplace, Professional Mode, and payments unavailable at launch.
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The introduction of multiple profiles is currently underway worldwide, and Facebook anticipates it will reach all users in the coming months. Meanwhile, on Meta’s Threads, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri recently disclosed that the Twitter alternative now facilitates effortless switching between accounts on mobile.