Facebook is adding a new feature that lets people choose a legacy contact - a family member or friend who can manage their account when they pass away. The optional feature will start appearing soon in your settings section of Facebook.

Once someone lets Facebook know that a person has passed away, the social network will "memorialize" the account and the legacy contact will be able to write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline; respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook ; and even update the profile picture and cover photo.

If someone chooses, they may give their legacy contact permission to download an archive of the photos, posts and profile information they shared on Facebook. The legacy contact will not be able to log in as the person who passed away or see that person’s private messages.

Alternatively, people can let Facebook know if they’d prefer to have their Facebook account permanently deleted after death.

Facebook has also redesigned memorialized profiles to pay tribute to the deceased by adding "Remembering" above their name and making it possible for their legacy contact to pin a post to the top of their Timeline.