Facebook Messenger Wants To Help You Have Interesting Conversations

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Do your friends think your online conversations are, well, kind of boring? Facebook Messenger wants to change that with a new feature designed to help users strike up interesting conversations.

Perhaps you have a new Facebook friend, or you want to chat with someone you haven’t talked to in a long time, and you don’t know what to say. Facebook’s “Conversation Topics” feature inside the Messenger app will suggest certain things your pal might want to discuss, based on their interests. Perhaps somewhere they’ve visited recently or a band they’ve been listening to a lot.

The new tool — which appears to only be available to some iOS users at this time — was first spotted by developer Chris Messina (h/t TechCrunch):

This way, you can not only talk to friends you might not have seen in awhile, but also catch up with their goings-on even if you don’t start chatting them up by using the tool as a newsfeed of sorts, one that isn’t littered with links, ads, and videos.

Messina pointed out another feature Facebook is working on to try to connect Messenger users with similar interests: a bit of code buried in the Messenger app that seems to indicate something called “Rooms,” which would likely be some kind of public chat rooms where friends can discuss favorite topics.

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