How to Find Trending Topics: 3 Sources, AI Tools and Timing
Where trends show up first, how to confirm them with Google Trends and AI tools, and how to post before the window closes, with Revid's data on which formats win.
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To find trending topics, check three sources daily: platform signals (TikTok's For You feed and rising sounds, X's Explore tab, Reddit's rising posts), search data in Google Trends, and a viral video library or AI tool that shows what is gaining views now. Act when a topic appears in two sources and interest is still climbing.
Speed beats polish. In Revid's study of the 80s AI video trend, Google search impressions on revid.ai for 80s AI video prompts hit 1,945 in a single day (September 10), 93% of all impressions landed between September 9 and 12, and two weeks later the same searches brought 158. A trend you notice on day five is often already over.
The three places trends show up first
| Source | What it tells you | How fast | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform feeds and trend pages (TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit) | Formats, sounds and conversations gaining views | Minutes to hours | Short-form video, memes, reactions |
| Search data (Google Trends, autocomplete) | What people actively want to know | Hours to days | Tutorials, explainers, follow-ups |
| Viral video libraries and AI tools (Revid, Exploding Topics) | Which videos and topics are outperforming, and why | Daily | Choosing a format and an angle |
Use a simple rule. If a topic shows up in one source, it is a hunch. If it shows up in two, test it with one quick video. If it shows up in all three and fits your niche, make the video today.
How to find trending topics on social media
Each platform surfaces trends differently, so look for the signal that platform actually gives you.
TikTok
Your For You feed is personalized, which makes it the best place to spot trends inside your own interests. The signal to watch is repetition: the same sound, caption template or video structure appearing in videos from creators who have nothing else in common. Once you see it three or four times in a day, it is spreading.
TikTok's search bar helps too. Type the start of a topic and read the suggestions, which reflect what people are searching for now. For a wider view than your own feed, Revid's page of TikTok trends today lists rising hashtags, sounds and videos, and the list of viral TikTok songs right now tracks the sounds behind them.
In the Reels feed, the same signal applies: one audio track or template reused across unrelated accounts. Also compare shares with likes. A Reel that people send to friends more than they like is relatable or useful, which is the kind of trend worth adapting.
To test a trend without risking your main feed, post it as a trial reel. Trial reels are shown first to non-followers, insights arrive within 24 hours, and they don't affect the ranking of your standard reels. You need a public account with at least 200 followers (professional) or 1,000 followers (personal).
X
The Explore tab lists what is trending, often with post counts. The list tells you what; your job is the why. Is it a release, breaking news, or a shared reaction to a public moment? The context decides whether there is a video in it. Watch how fast reposts grow, especially when accounts outside the topic's usual circle start sharing: that usually means a conversation is about to go mainstream.
YouTube
Don't plan around a Trending page. YouTube's Help Center now describes Trending Charts only for select categories (Movie Trailers, Music Videos and Gaming), updated roughly every 30 minutes, not a general Trending tab. Use YouTube's search autocomplete instead, and switch Google Trends to YouTube Search (see below). In the Shorts feed, look for recurring formats the same way you would on TikTok.
Reddit and LinkedIn
On Reddit, sort niche subreddits by Rising. Topics often simmer in passionate communities before they reach the front page: what dominates r/gadgets today can be a mainstream tech story tomorrow. Read the comments for the exact questions people ask, since those become your video hooks.
For B2B topics, LinkedIn is where professional conversations start. This guide to building a content strategy for LinkedIn explains how authority content works with a professional audience.
How to find trending topics with Google Trends
Social feeds show what is buzzing. Search data shows what people are curious enough to look up, which is a stronger signal of lasting interest. Google Trends is free and takes five minutes:
- Open the Trending now view to see searches surging in your country, or enter a broad term from your niche.
- Set the time range to the past 7 days for fast trends, or the past day for news.
- Change Web Search to YouTube Search when you plan a video, so you see video demand, not general web demand.
- Scroll to Related queries and switch to Rising. These are your angles.
- Check the past 12 months to tell a seasonal spike from a genuinely new trend.
Related queries are where the value is. A spike for "air fryer recipes" is too broad to act on. Rising queries such as "air fryer salmon bites" or "easy air fryer breakfast" are specific topics you can build a video around. For a ready-made starting list, Exploding Topics' list of trending topics collects fast-growing topics across categories.
Prompt to try
Make a 40-second vertical explainer on the rising search "air fryer salmon bites". Open with the hook "This is why everyone is making salmon bites right now", then show the 3 steps with times and temperatures. Use close-up food visuals, bold captions and an upbeat voice.
Does a social trend have search demand?
Use search data to check what you see on social media. If a TikTok sound is everywhere but nobody searches for anything related to it, it is a format trend: make a quick video that uses it, and move on. If search interest rises at the same time, people want to know more, and a tutorial, explainer or follow-up video has room to rank for weeks.
How to find trending topics with AI
There are three ways to use AI for trend research, and they answer different questions.
Ask an AI assistant that can search the web
ChatGPT, Perplexity and similar assistants with web search can scan news and social posts quickly. Give them a precise brief:
Search the web for topics in [your niche] that gained attention in the past 7 days. For each one, give the source link, when it started, why people care, and one short-video angle for [your audience]. Skip anything you cannot date.
Use a trend-detection tool
| Tool | What it watches | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Revid | About 2.77 million short-form videos and posts with public engagement data (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, X, Threads, Reddit, LinkedIn) | Finding formats that are working now and turning them into your own video |
| Exploding Topics | Search, news and social mentions | Spotting topics before they peak |
| Glimpse | Search and shopping data | Product and consumer trends |
| BuzzSumo | Social shares of web content | Content marketing and article topics |
Pricing changes often, so check each site for current plans. For a wider overview of AI tools for creators, see this roundup of top AI tools for content creation.
Find and remix a trending format with Revid
Most trend tools stop at the topic. Revid connects the trend to a video you can make:
- Search Revid's viral library by topic, platform, engagement tier and length. Filter to the viral tier (1 million+ views) to see formats audiences already proved they watch. A free account can search the library.
- Open a video and run Deep analysis (free, up to 60 a day). It explains the hook, the timed structure, the scroll-stopping moment and three ways to adapt it to another niche.
- Choose "Make it about your topic" or "Same energy, new script" to remix the trending format into an original video with a new script and visuals.
- Edit it in the timeline, then publish or schedule it to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
- To follow specific creators instead of keywords, add their TikTok or YouTube channels to the channel watcher (5 channels on the Growth plan, from $39/month). It syncs daily and flags their outlier videos.
If you meant trending topics about AI itself, the same methods work. Revid's TikTok finder also has a page of viral TikToks about AI tools.
Which trends are worth making a video about
Not every trend deserves a video. Run each one through these checks:
- Fit: it matters to the audience you already have or want. If you are still choosing that audience, start with how to find a trending niche.
- Angle: you can add something (a take, a test, a tutorial) instead of copying.
- Momentum: interest is still rising in Google Trends or on the platform.
- Speed: you can publish the same day or the next.
- Comment quality: a video with 500,000 views and 10,000 excited comments from people tagging friends signals a better trend than one with one million views and 1,000 angry comments.
Format matters as much as topic. In Revid's analysis of 176,367 TikToks with 1,000+ likes posted between October 2025 and October 2026, challenges had the highest median views (182K, with 25.6% passing 1 million), followed by comedy (155K) and reactions (105K), while tutorials sat at 62K. The sample only includes videos that already did reasonably well, so these figures show what top videos have in common, not guaranteed causes. The full study of what makes a TikTok go viral has the method.
Challenges and comedy passed 1M views about twice as often as tutorials and storytelling, which are the most common formats.
Source: Revid analysis of 176,367 TikToks with 1,000+ likes posted between Oct 1, 2025 and Oct 16, 2026 (61,203 creators)
Show the data
| Median views | Share that passed 1M views | |
|---|---|---|
| Challenge | 182.3K | 25.6% |
| Comedy | 154.8K | 22.1% |
| Reaction | 104.8K | 16% |
| Dance | 83.8K | 15.5% |
| Storytelling | 66.1K | 12.2% |
| Lip Sync | 61.7K | 12.3% |
| Tutorial | 61.9K | 12.1% |
The emotion behind a trend predicts views too. In the same TikTok data, videos dominated by outrage had a 156K median, humor 121K and sadness 104K, while inspirational videos had 45K. Outrage gets views but costs trust over time; humor gets almost as far without the backlash.
High-arousal emotions (outrage, humor, sadness) earned the most views. Calm, inspirational videos earned the least, even though they collect the most likes per view.
Source: Revid analysis of 176,367 TikToks with 1,000+ likes posted between Oct 1, 2025 and Oct 16, 2026 (61,203 creators)
Show the data
| Median views | Share that passed 1M views | |
|---|---|---|
| Outrage | 156K | 23.7% |
| Humor | 121K | 19.3% |
| Sadness | 104.4K | 16.5% |
| Excitement | 92.5K | 15.9% |
| Joy | 89.9K | 18% |
| Informative | 64.1K | 11.2% |
| Neutral | 61.2K | 11.5% |
| Inspirational | 44.6K | 11.3% |
Prompt to try
Create a 30-second faceless TikTok reacting to a new AI tool that just went viral this week. Hook: "Everyone is talking about this tool, but here is what nobody tells you." Give one honest take and one quick tip, with fast cuts, screen-style visuals and punchy captions.
When to jump on a trend
Trends follow a curve: a few early adopters, a fast rise, a peak, then saturation, when every account has posted its version. Your window is the rise. Too early and nobody is looking yet; at saturation your video competes with everyone who got there first.
A good video on the rising slope beats a perfect one after the peak. Make that possible before the trend arrives:
- Templates: keep a ready structure for a hot take, a quick tutorial and a reaction, so you only swap in the new topic.
- B-roll library: save general footage (your workspace, reaction shots, screen recordings) so you film less each time.
- Pivot rule: if a relevant trend takes off, push your scheduled video back a day and post the trend video first. A social media scheduler makes that swap a two-minute job.
Pair the video with the right tags: Revid's page of trending TikTok hashtags shows rising tags by niche.
A 20-minute daily trend routine
Chasing every trend burns you out. A short, fixed routine catches the ones that matter:
- Scan feeds (5 to 10 minutes). Use Feedly to pull the top blogs, news sites and subreddits in your niche into one RSS reader, and scan headlines for repeated themes.
- Check alerts. Set Google Alerts for specific phrases your audience uses ("new AI video tools for creators", not "AI"). For social mentions of a brand or keyword, a listening tool such as Awario sends alerts when conversation picks up.
- Confirm. Run anything promising through Google Trends and your platform of choice.
- Log it. Keep one board in Notion or Trello with one card per trend: the evidence (a search spike, a sound), your angle and a status. Tag cards
Quick_Turnaround,Evergreen_PotentialorAudio_Trendso you can find the right idea when you plan the week.
In total that is 15 to 20 minutes a day. Once a quarter, read broader trend reports for the slow shifts behind fast trends, such as GreenBook's ten global trends for 2025 and Research World's trends for 2025.
Turn one trend into lasting content
A trend video that takes off is a free research report. Read the comments for follow-up questions and make the next video answer them. Then turn the trend into something with a longer shelf life: if a new AI tool is everywhere, a quick reaction gets the spike, but a beginner's guide or a "mistakes to avoid" video keeps getting found for months.
Judge results on more than views. Look at comment quality (real questions and conversations), follower growth after trend posts, and, if you sell something, visits and sales. Keep the trend formats that move those numbers and drop the ones that only bring passing views.
FAQ
How do I find out what's trending right now?
Open X's Explore tab and Google Trends' Trending now view for news, then scroll TikTok's For You feed or a daily trends page for formats and sounds. If the same topic appears in two of these, it is trending now.
Is Google Trends free?
Yes. Google Trends is free with no account needed, and it covers both web search and YouTube search interest.
How long does a trend last?
Fast social trends often peak within days. In Revid's 80s AI video trend data, 93% of search impressions came in four days, so plan to publish within a day or two of spotting a trend.
How many hashtags should I use on a trending video?
On TikTok, use 3 or 4: in Revid's study, 4 hashtags had the best median views (77K) and 3 had 75K, while 9 or more had 16K. Instagram allows at most 5 per post. More tactics are in the guide on how to find trending hashtags.
Do I need to show my face to ride a trend?
No. In Revid's TikTok data, faceless videos had a median of 114K views, against 67K for one person on camera, so voice-over, screen recordings and POV formats work well for trends.
