Facebook begins testing real-time comments on status updates

By David Curry Published December 14, 2015

Facebook is testing real-time conversations on status updates, replicating the ellipsis seen on Messenger when a friend is typing a reply. First spotted back in November, TheNextWeb spotted it again earlier this week, showing that Facebook has not given up on the idea.

Real-time conversations may only work for your status updates or for updates you’ve commented on, we suspect. This should keep you apprised of the status of a conversation, and of whether the other person intends to reply.

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Facebook is testing the update on its iOS app, but we still don’t know if it will become available to all users. In a statement to TNW, Facebook said:

“News Feed is a place to stay up to date with your friends and family. We’ve heard from people that they want their experience on Facebook to reflect the real-time conversations they have. So we are testing adding a line above the comment box of a post that indicates when a friend is typing. This is to help people have real-time conversations with friends and family.”

Even though Facebook sounds confident that the feature will increase engagement, the ellipsis on Messenger has caused some users to not reply until the other person finishes their message. It also aggravates users when the other person begins to type a message, but then doesn’t send it.

On Twitter, several users who spotted the tests seem to agree with our sentiment, claiming the real-time conversations are creepy or will cause more “drama” on status updates. That is the usual reply for anything Facebook is testing however, so we will not be able to tell how good or bad the update is until it is available to everyone.

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