Facebook users will soon be able to send actual gifts along with their birthday wishes to friends and family. 

The Facebook Gifts feature enables users to choose and buy from a list of presents available through the social networking site before sending them publically to the recipient's timeline or privately, as you would with a message.

The person who’s birthday it is can unwrap a virtual preview of the present and send Facebook their postal address, before the gift is shipped out a few days later.

The present can be paid for at the time of choosing or once the recipient has accepted the gift. What’s more if you, as the birthday boy or girl, don’t like the present, you can change the colour, size and flavour or even swap it for something of equivalent value. Just don’t tell the person who sent it.

At launch there are more than 100 gifts to choose from, including cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, stuffed animals from Gund and a digital gift card from Starbucks. 

Facebook Gifts is being rolled out gradually now, with the US the first to benefit. No sign of it as yet on our UK timeline, so please continue to send your birthday gifts to the Pocket-lint team using more traditional forms. They’re always well received.