Facebook has announced that it will delete photos synched from the Facebook app if its Moments app isn't installed before 7 July.

When the photo synching feature was added to the Facebook app in 2012 it promised to offer unlimited synching of photos, like a cloud back-up for snaps. Now Facebook has threatened to delete those pictures, should users not download and use its Moments app. This won't affect photos uploaded to Facebook separately to the synched album.

Of course anyone that relies on this service for backing up photos has probably already installed the Moments app, since direct backup via the Facebook app was no longer supported from January. Anyone who installed the Moments app had their backed up photos effectively moved over to that app.

Should you wish to back-up your photos but not use the Moments app, you can download your pics now and keep them that way.

The official statement from Facebook reads: "Photos you privately synced from your phone to Facebook will be deleted soon. Earlier this year, they were moved to Moments, a new app from Facebook. If you want to keep these photos, download and log into Moments before 7 July. If you don’t want Moments, download these photos directly to your computer from your Facebook profile before 7 July."

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