Facebook Messenger tells you what to talk about with “Conversation Topics” feature

Facebook Messenger may have already hit the billion-user club this past summer, but the company is always looking for new ways to increase app usage. The latest attempt is the introduction of “conversation topics” on Messenger – a feature offering suggestions about what to talk about with friends. These conversation starters appear to rely on Messenger’s connection to Facebook’s larger social network, as they reference things your friends have done lately – like where they’ve been, or events they plan to attend, for example.

The feature was spotted this weekend on the iOS app by Chris Messina, who posted to Twitter about the new conversation starters.

We understand that this is currently only a small test Facebook is conducting, which is why not that many people are currently seeing this new section in their own Messenger application at this time.

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🕸Chris Messina ✔ @Chrismessina
Clever: @messenger now suggests conversation starters based on things your friends have done recently.
4:25 PM - 16 Oct 2016 · San Francisco, CA, United States
61 61 Retweets 93 93 likes
The suggested topics have their own dedicated section on the homescreen.

The conversation topic suggestion appears underneath a friend’s name in the new section. To the right is Messenger’s activity indicator, which shows you when the person was last online.

In the example above, Messenger displays places the friend in question had recently visited, like the Grand Canyon.

In other cases, the suggested topics might include things like the songs the friend just listened to on a music streaming service, or an event they’ve indicated they’ve said they’re interested via Facebook Events.

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(((Dan Simpson))) @Iamthedans
Facebook have some awesome people working on @messenger. It showed @Trixieavis 'conversation topics inc what I'm listening to.
9:06 AM - 11 Oct 2016
5 5 Retweets 5 5 likes
The idea behind Conversation Topics is simple: if you’re looking for a way to break the ice with a new Facebook friend or catch up with an old one, these conversation prompts can help you figure out what to talk about.

In addition, the feature would have the added benefit of being a more basic News Feed of sorts, as it lets you catch up on friends’ recent activity, without having to scroll through News Feed and its clutter of shared links, posts from Facebook Pages, ads, and other content.

It’s also worth noting that this Conversation Topics feature isn’t the only thing Facebook is working on in order to better connect Messenger users with those who share similar interests. In September, Messina had also spotted code buried in the Messenger app which pointed to a feature called “Rooms.”

This appears to be an attempt to build public chat rooms on Messenger’s platform around shared topics and interests, and likely has ties to Facebook’s earlier “Rooms” project, now shuttered, which was an experiment in anonymized social networking on Facebook’s part.

It’s unclear for the time being if the Conversation Topics are in any way tied to Messenger’s plans to debut public chat rooms, however.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techno...ure/ar-AAj58Cy