Facebook has updated the iOS version of its app with a powerful new Event browsing feature that will take advantage of the wealth of data the social media giant has on users to suggest events, as well as enabling users to search for nearby events based on specific timeframes.

The update has only been rolled out to 10 major cities so far, according to Wired, but if the new search function proves popular, it will inevitably be expanded across the US and internationally, and to Android and Windows too.

The updated Events dashboard enables users to navigate by interests like music, food & drinks, sports & fitness and others, as well as by specific locations. The update is part of a concerted effort to energise the Events page Facebook announced earlier this year, and has sparked speculation that the company has plans to spin the functionality out into a new app, as it did with Messenger.

You may have noticed more public events appearing in your News Feed, as well as an increase in notifications centred around event youve been invited to. These tweaks have been part of Facebooks efforts, and have resulted in more people creating public events, higher attendance rates and more use of Facebook event pages for chatting and posting photos. Facebook recently revealed that 35,000 Star Wars-themed events were organised using the platform this month.