New Facebook feature lets you look back at memories from past years

Facebook today unveiled a new feature that lets users look back at photos and posts from the current calendar date in past years.

Called “On This Day,” the feature gives users a way to reminisce about anything they’ve shared, or been tagged in, in past years.

The feature is clearly meant as Facebook’s own version of Timehop, a third-party service that lets users of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Flickr, and Instagram look at posts from one year earlier.

In a blog post, Facebook said, “You might see past status updates, photos, posts from friends and other things you’ve shared or been tagged in — from one year ago, two years ago, and so on. Only you will see this content unless you decide to share it with your friends.”

Users can seek out their past moments, Facebook said, by going to an On This Day bookmark or searching for the phrase, or they may see past posts show up in their News Feed. “Once on the page, you can choose to subscribe to notifications so you’ll be alerted when you have memories to look back on,” Facebook wrote. “You can also edit and delete old posts, or decide to share your memories with friends.”

The new feature has been in tests for awhile, and is now being rolled out to all Facebook users on both the Web and mobile.