For the last couple of years, Twitter has been fiddling with users’ timelines, trying to show the best tweets first, based on an algorithm. The social network tried inserting tweets people “might have missed” or tweets that were supposedly “liked” by people they follow. However, not everyone was a fan of the algorithmic timeline, as many users complained they miss things. And to the best interest of the users, Twitter has decided to switch back to the basics. It has announced that it will soon begin testing ways to switch between a timeline of “relevant tweets” and a timeline of tweets in the classic chronological timeline.
Tweets in chronological order
Twitter already has this option in Settings where you can switch off the “show me the best tweets first”. Earlier, switching it off would display the “in case you missed it” tweets and recommended tweets from people you don’t follow. However, starting today, doing so will display only tweets from people you follow in reverse chronological order. It’s probably the change many users have been looking for, and were even pursuing by setting up filters on their own, like this one by Andy Baio. It includes a search string which filters out retweets, liked tweets, or any other, like he says, “algorithm nonsense.”
However, this is certainly not what everyone wants, and Twitter is trying to introduce “an easily accessible way” to allow users to switch between algorithmic and chronological timelines.
4/ So, we’re working on providing you with an easily accessible way to switch between a timeline of Tweets that are most relevant for you and a timeline of the latest Tweets. You’ll see us test this in the coming weeks.
— Support (@Support) September 17, 2018
Twitter hasn’t confirmed when exactly the new changes will come into effect. However, it says it’ll begin testing them in the coming weeks. The new changes will eventually replace the “show me the best tweets first” setting with an easier-to-access switch.
“We’ll keep you updated and are listening to your feedback – let us know what you think!”, Twitter says.
If Instagram could see all this!
