Facebook is changing the news feed to highlight relevant news

Facebook’s news feature is little out of date, often showcasing news that is hours, or even days, old and totally irrelevant to what’s going on in the world at the current point in time. Facebook is well aware of this, and is introducing a system that will highlight important news when it matters the most.

The first port of call is making trending topics more important, so now when breaking news is trending you won’t be left with a random story about how Kanye West stopped his concert to shout at members of his audience because they aren’t standing up. As interesting as Kanye West satisfying his ego is, it’s not exactly important to the world. It’ll also be taking into account when people like a post, not just how many likes the post receives.

Apparently the changes are going to be rolling out gradually, so chances are you won’t actually notice any major changes. Facebook hasn’t mentioned anything about the site’s tendency to switch away from a ‘Most Recent’ news feed by itself, or whether people will be getting any more control over what they see, but it’s good to see that changes are happening.

But in all honesty if you want to follow breaking news, you’re better off using Twitter to follow the feeds of mainstream news organisations. Facebook’s never going to be able to trump that real time stream of information.

Want to read more? Here’s our coverage of the recent Apple announcements, including everything you need to know about Apple’s ‘phablet’, the iPhone 6 Plus, and smartwatches buying guide, or if you’re sick of Apple completely, here’s our rundown of our 14 favourite dating apps, from Tinder to eHarmony.