Trending Topics
Trending Topics is a Chatter feature that ranks the hashtag topics your colleagues are actively discussing across the org right now.
Definition
Trending Topics is a Chatter feature that ranks the hashtag topics your colleagues are actively discussing across the org right now. It appears on the Chatter tab, and clicking a topic opens its detail page with the posts and comments carrying that topic.
The ranking is driven by rate of change rather than lifetime volume. Adding a topic to your feed counts, and so does commenting on or liking posts that carry it. That is why trending entries usually track a one-time spike, like a conference or a project deadline.
It is the older way to see what an org is talking about. Beginning in Summer '26, Chatter is disabled by default in new orgs. Salesforce channels, which bring Slack into record pages, are default enabled in some editions instead. Treat Trending Topics as something you maintain in an existing Chatter org, not something you plan a fresh program around.
In plain English
“Picture a small board in the office that lists what people are chatting about today. A subject that suddenly gets a lot of comments and likes jumps to the top. When people stop talking about it, it drops off the board and something newer takes its place.”
Worked example
A 900-person logistics operator runs Chatter with a published hashtag list. During a warehouse system cutover, the operations lead posts to the public Ops Announcements group and tags it #WMSCutover. Over the next few hours, 38 posts and roughly 120 comments carry the same topic. Because the calculation looks at how fast usage is climbing, #WMSCutover passes #Q3Kickoff. That older topic has far more posts overall but flat daily activity. A support rep who never joined Ops Announcements spots #WMSCutover on the Chatter tab, opens the topic page, and reads the public thread. A second hashtag used only inside the private escalation group never trends, because topics confined to private groups are left out.
What actually pushes a topic onto the trending list
The eight-hour window and the three-user floor
Here is the mechanic that explains the drop-offs. Posts older than eight hours do not factor into the current trend calculation. A hashtag falls off because its recent window went quiet, not because anyone removed it. There is also a floor to clear: at least three uses by at least three different people inside one four-hour cycle. One enthusiastic person tagging the same thing nine times gets nowhere. Salesforce then ranks whatever clears that floor by trend value, the difference in post count between one cycle and the next. So the panel you are looking at was accurate up to four hours ago, and a quiet afternoon empties it in a small org.
The privacy filter that hollows out the list
Trending Topics leaves out topics that are used solely in private groups or record feeds. That one rule explains most disappointed first impressions. If your org does its real work in private groups, the list looks sparse no matter how busy Chatter actually is. A topic that appears in at least one visible public post can still trend. The private posts under it stay hidden from people without access. Before writing the feature off as broken, check where the conversation is happening.
You are ranking Topic records, not strings
Typing a hashtag in a Chatter post assigns a Topic record to that post. A hashtag topic only ends at a comma or a closing square bracket. Other punctuation is legal inside a topic name, so #Q4Results and #Q4-Results become two separate Topic records, each with its own likes and comments. Neither reaches the floor the merged version would have cleared. Orgs that get real value here publish a short canonical hashtag list and give a few moderators the job of merging strays. Without that, the panel fills with one-off tags that surfaced a handful of posts each.
Where this sits after the Summer '26 default change
Chatter is turned off by default in all new orgs beginning in Summer '26. A freshly provisioned org has no trending list until an admin enables Chatter in Setup. Salesforce also documents a profile-based rollout: grant the Enable Chatter permission on chosen profiles and permission sets, then switch the feature on. Existing orgs keep what they have. Nothing forces a migration. But new orgs in some editions get Salesforce channels enabled instead, which run the conversation through Slack on record pages. Check which of the two your org actually has before you build a hashtag program around a trending panel.
How organizations use Trending Topics
Watches the trending list during peak season to catch a warehouse problem spreading across public groups before it becomes a formal escalation.
Publishes a canonical hashtag list ahead of launch week so conversation concentrates on one topic instead of five near-duplicate spellings.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Trending Topics.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Trending Topics.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He writes and edits salesforcedictionary.com, published by KineticBit Inc., to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
+5 pts / dayQ1. What does the Chatter Trending Topics calculation actually rank?
Q2. Which topics does Trending Topics leave out?
Q3. What changed for Chatter in new Salesforce orgs beginning in Summer '26?
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