Activate Facebook Timeline In 5 Easy Steps

There is a way, ladies and gentlemen, you get yourself aboard an early developers look at Facebook's new layout, that being the one called Timeline that we were introduced to just yesterday. The process is relatively simple, though you must be warned: its designed to allow developers to see the build early and may not be completely set up to show you exactly what you want to see of yourself – my god, your whole Facebook life, right there! Let's get started!

First, you must head to the Facebook Developers page at https://developers.facebook.com/ and sign up for an account. This will be the longest portion of your process as you may have to wait for permissions to take effect or for your confirmation numbers to go through. You've got to confirm your account with a text message sent to your cell phone, at which point you've got to head to step two.

Second, create a new app. To do this you've just got to head up to the upper right-hand side of your developer homepage and hit the Create New App button. You'll have a window pop up with a place for App Display Name and App Namespace. Enter whatever you like and click Continue. There may be a "type this picture" security check at this point – do it and continue.

Third, once you're in the App Summary for the app you've just started creating, find the link in the upper left that's titled "Open Graph". You'll recognize this link from yesterday's news. Here you've got to enter something basic in both text fields, something like Watch and Movie will do fine. Hit "get started."

Fourth, you'll be brought back to a page that looks basically like the page you were at before you hit Open Graph. All you've got to do here is go to the bottom of the screen and hit "Save Changes and Next". At this point you wait for a few minutes.

Fifth and finally, head to your own normal Facebook homepage and you'll hopefully see this little box front and center. Hit "Get it Now" and you're in!

Also check out our full Timeline guide if you wanna know how to get around n such. Futuristic!

UPDATE: Note that it will only be you and other Facebook Developers (including everyone else who used this method to activate, in this case) that will be able to see your Timeline until the 30th of September, 2011. It appears that this is the date that Timeline will be active for everyone OR at least the date at which the Beta will begin to be sent out in bulk.