Almost two whole years after Facebook’s Graph Search launched on desktop the company announced it is finally bringing the feature to mobile devices.
Listening to feedback from users since Graph Search first launched, Facebook is now making the powerful desktop feature available to mobile users. The company also announced the addition of another top requested search feature, which is the ability to search for individual posts.
According to the announcement, users have been clamoring for the ability to find posts from people and pages that have been shared with them before. Whether you want to reminisce on conversations between friends from back when you first joined Facebook, or find that great article shared by a page last week, it’s all accessible via a quick Facebook search.
Before you go trying to dig up dirt on former friends or acquaintances, keep in mind that you’ll only be able to search for posts from people that you’re somehow connected with currently. If there’s no connection, you won’t be able to search for their posts, unless they’re set to ‘public’
So don’t worry, you won’t have to worry about people you’re not connected to digging up embarrassing posts you shared years ago. Come to think of it, this may be a good time to revisit privacy settings of older posts now that everything you’ve ever shared is potentially searchable. This update doesn’t change what you’re able to see, just how you can go about finding it.
While you can search for all public posts, posts from people who you have a connection to will be prioritized over posts from people you’re not connected to. Search results are unique and personalized for each user.
Searching for individual posts is fairly intuitive, and can be done by typing in a few words used in the post. For example, if you friend John shared his new workout routine last week, and you just got yourself a gym membership, you could search for “workout routine John” to bring that post up again.
Since Graph Search has only ever been available in US English, the updates announced today will also only be available in that language. In what may be disappointing to some, these updates will only be available to desktop and iPhone users.
A Facebook spokesperson has said that the company will be listening to feedback, and from there will decide when to bring the features to Android. No specific timeframe was given as to when Android users can expect these features to become available.
For more information on Facebook search, you can visit the microsite at search.fb.com.
