Facebook is testing Graph Search for your mobile

By David Nield February 2, 2014

facebook testing graph search mobile — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The desktop is dead, long live mobile: Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg knows how important the mobile experience is when it comes to engaging with users on the go, and Graph Search is the latest feature making the leap from the Web to Facebook’s smartphone and tablet apps.

Zuckerberg hinted that Graph Search for mobile was in development during last week’s earnings call, also promising a range of standalone mobile apps to augment the main Facebook experience. The first of these, the Flipboard-style news reader Paper, is scheduled to launch tomorrow for the iPhone.

Now it looks like testing has begun in earnest to bring the social network’s slick, multi-purpose search tool to smartphones and tablets. Mashable’s Seth Fiegerman seems to be one of the early beta testers, confirming in a tweet that Graph Search had arrived in a Facebook mobile update. Facebook itself hasn’t provided an official timescale, though Zuckerberg did say that the feature would be coming to the platform’s mobile apps “pretty soon”.

The desktop version of Graph Search launched last July in the U.S., giving users “a new way to find people, photos, places and interests on Facebook.” The functionality was expanded again in October, with new options for running searches based on time, topic and location. Access to Graph Search outside the U.S. is still limited to a selection of early testers.

Presumably the high-speed, real-time Graph Search will require a decent cellular or Wi-Fi connection to work effectively on mobile, though until it rolls out fully we won’t know for sure. Will Graph Search tempt you to open up your Facebook app more often? Or have you already jumped ship to Snapchat? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…

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