diff --git a/static/js/recent_topics_data.js b/static/js/recent_topics_data.js
index b8e868876c..ccc21a192c 100644
--- a/static/js/recent_topics_data.js
+++ b/static/js/recent_topics_data.js
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@ import {get_key_from_message} from "./recent_topics_util";
 export const topics = new Map(); // Key is stream-id:topic.
 
 export function process_message(msg) {
-    // This function returns if topic_data
-    // has changed or not.
-
     // Initialize topic and pm data
     // Key for private message is the user id's
     // to whom the message is begin sent.
@@ -34,7 +31,6 @@ export function process_message(msg) {
     // message fetched in the topic. Ideally we would want this to be attached
     // to topic info fetched from backend, which is currently not a thing.
     topic_data.participated = is_ours || topic_data.participated;
-    return true;
 }
 
 function get_sorted_topics() {
diff --git a/static/js/recent_topics_ui.js b/static/js/recent_topics_ui.js
index ee3ae55db1..e26c142a6f 100644
--- a/static/js/recent_topics_ui.js
+++ b/static/js/recent_topics_ui.js
@@ -298,17 +298,10 @@ export function process_messages(messages) {
     // the UX can be bad if user wants to scroll down the list as
     // the UI will be returned to the beginning of the list on every
     // update.
-    //
-    // Only rerender if topic_data actually
-    // changed.
-    let topic_data_changed = false;
-    for (const msg of messages) {
-        if (process_message(msg)) {
-            topic_data_changed = true;
+    if (messages.length > 0) {
+        for (const msg of messages) {
+            process_message(msg);
         }
-    }
-
-    if (topic_data_changed) {
         complete_rerender();
     }
 }