Two days ago we reported that Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey had taken to Twitter to deny any changes to the platform’s Timeline algorithm. Today Twitter has announced that it actually will be introducing a new timeline feature.
Mike Jahr, senior engineering manager at Twitter said in a media release: “You follow hundreds of people on Twitter — maybe thousands — and when you open Twitter, you may feel like you’ve missed their most important Tweets. We hear this from people every day. Starting today, you can choose a new timeline feature that helps you catch up on the most important Tweets from the people you follow.
“When you first open Twitter, the Tweets you’re most likely to care about will appear at the top of your timeline – they are recent, and in reverse chronological order. Then the rest of the Tweets will be displayed right underneath, also in reverse chronological order, as always. At any point, just refresh to see all new Tweets in the live, up-to-the-second experience that you already know and love!
“This option is available to everyone on Twitter for iOS, Android, and the web. To try it today, go into your settings and choose ‘Show me the best Tweets first’ within the timeline section. We’ve already noticed that people who have used this new feature tend to Retweet and Tweet more, which is good for everyone! Over the coming weeks, we’ll turn this feature on for you and send a notification in your timeline when we do.
“If you love it, great — we love it too! If you don’t, you can easily turn it off in settings.”
Previously B&T reported that Twitter was not changing its timeline, both senior software engineer Brandon Carpenter and CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed to its followers that Twitter wasn’t changing:
Hello Twitter! Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we’re always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
Seriously people. We aren’t idiots. Quit speculating about how we’re going to “ruin Twitter”
— Brandon Carpenter (@bhcarpenter) February 6, 2016
