Last weeks rumours streamed in that Twitter was making changes in its timeline. The Chief executive Jack Dorsey did not deny the substance of the claims which resulted in out-pour of protest from users. They were so outraged at the change of plans that the hashtag #RIPTwitter began trending. Now Twitter have officially confirmed that it is rolling out a feature to let people change the order in which their tweets appear, to priorities ‘the best posts’.
According to The Verge, unknown to most, this redesign of Twitter timeline has been ‘undergoing tests for several months.’ It is basically an extension of ‘While You Were Away’ feature on Twitter. The feature is not a default one and can be disabled at any time. While explaining how the whole things works, the company wrote in their blog, “You flip on the feature in your settings; then when you open Twitter after being away for a while, the Tweets you’re most likely to care about will appear at the top of your timeline – still recent and in reverse chronological order.”
“The rest of the Tweets will be displayed right underneath, also in reverse chronological order, as always. At any point, just pull-to-refresh to see all new Tweets at the top in the live, up-to-the-second experience you already know and love.”
Users can enable the timeline now by going to ‘setting’ and choose ‘Show me the best Tweets first’. This feature will be available to users in the coming weeks. For anyone who can’t find the option, Twitter advises to wait. users will automatically give you a notification to try out the new feature.
Once you have experienced the new features, tell Twitter what you think about it by choosing ‘feedback’ in your settings. And in case you hate this feature, you can instantly turn it off in settings. So far testers have reported mixed feelings where some have said the feature is enhancing their Twitting experience and others find the feature abhorring.
We don’t have too much info at this point as to what Twitter considers ‘important’ or how does this prioritising of Twitter posts work. But the change is coming to all Twitter platforms – iOS, Android, and the web (except for TweetDeck and Twitter for Mac, for now).
Lately Twitter have been trying to up-scale their growth by launching features like Moments (which allows users to compile photos, videos and messages about big news events), polls and stats on Twitter. Changes in the timeline is part of the company’s current strategy.
