Facebook is working on adaptive color background

Facebook is trying to make its Android app prettier with a new feature. Reverse software engineer Jane Manchun Wong found the feature a couple of weeks ago when it was still in a very crude and ugly state. The first iteration of the adaptive color background took colors from profile pictures to extrapolate a matching custom background color. The result was pretty dismal and looked like this.


Jane posted an update recently, and it seems that Facebook is improving the feature making it almost practical. Rather than using a custom color based on the profile picture, the feature now picks from the nearest color in a preset, mitigating the somewhat ugly results from the previous iteration. Background colors are now based on the cover photo, and they look like this.

Facebook is working on adaptive color background for profile view

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Found 10 days ago and still waiting for comments from Facebook pic.twitter.com/nRmBcE4vun

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 20, 2020

 While the new Facebook feature is still in an experimental phase, judging by the fantastic record of Jane's treasure hunts up to now, we can expect these adaptive colors to start showing on Facebook in the following weeks. Facebook might add some further refinements like color gradients before launching the feature for the masses, though. Giving people more ways to express themselves is a good thing, but the esthetic benefits of adaptive color backgrounds are questionable at the moment.