Facebook Brings Trending Topics To Mobile, Organizes The Discussion

Facebook has made a concerted effort of late to be your go-to source for more than just wedding announcements and passive-aggressive complaining. Their trending topics section, typically housed on the right side of your home screen, has been a staple on the desktop. This is an increasingly mobile landscape, though, and Facebook is trying to stay relevant there, too. Now, trending topics will make their way to mobile, with the conversation being aggregated in a way that will make it easier to cut through the nonsense and get right to the gritty details.

When you find a topic you want to learn more about via Trending, Facebook has wisely cultivated who is saying what, and why you should listen to them. In an odd twist, Facebook isn't filtering much out, and instead will feed you info based on topical discussions. here's how it breaks down:

Articles shows you how news organizations are covering the story
In the Story shows you posts from people who are part of the storyFriends and Groups shows you what people in your network are sayingNear the Scene shows you posts from people near where the story is unfoldingLive Feed shows you a real-time stream of reactions from people around the world

Those various feeds will stay contextual based on engagement, timeliness, and "other factors" Facebook isn't ready to divulge just yet.

Facebook is making the new feature available for the desktop and Android starting today. Support for iOS is "coming soon", though Facebook hasn't noted a timeline just yet.

Source: Facebook