Supporting causes on Facebook is about to get a lot easier

You're perhaps familiar with the idea of changing your Facebook profile picture to support a specific cause or event: gay marriage, cancer research, your mate's stag do, and so on.

Facebook has noticed the trend and wants to help - the social media behemoth is testing out a new feature that lets you set a temporary profile picture that expires after a set number of hours, days or weeks.

The idea is that the picture automatically reverts back to the original profile image without you having to remember to change it - your rainbow-coloured portrait will only appear for as long as it's relevant, in other words.

Causes and milestones

TechCrunch spotted the newly introduced option, which is available now to a select group of testers, and says it could roll out to more people in future. Or, it might get canned completely.

"We often see people use their profile pictures to support a cause, root for a team, and commemorate milestones like birthdays and anniversaries," said Facebook in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.

"Today, we're testing a new feature that allows you to set a temporary profile picture for a specified period of time. Temporary profile pictures make it easier to to express who you are and how you're feeling at a given moment, without having to worry about changing your profile picture back later."

Get behind a worthy cause or celebrate your local team's sporting success in even fewer clicks - what's not to like?

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