Twitter timeline change: This is Twitter’s new “best of” algorithmic timeline feature
Twitter has revealed the changes that are coming to people's timelines.
Despite the outrage over reports of the introduction of a feed curated by an algorithm rather than simply appearing in chronological order, the feature will roll out from today – although it is optional.
In a blog post, Twitter said:
"Here's how it works. 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."
Engineer Mike Jahr said the feature has already been tested and that it resulted in users tweeting and retweeting more.
It builds upon a "while you were away" feature which already shows users selected tweets from their timelines which they may have missed from earlier in the day.
Users can right now go to settings and choose "show me the best tweets first".
Jahr, however, indicated the optionality of the feature may change in the coming weeks, suggesting it will be an opt out, rather than opt in, part of Twitter.
"We'll be listening to your feedback and making it even better over time," he added. "Then we'll be turning on the feature for you in coming weeks — look out for a notification in your timeline. We love it and think you will too."
Twitter shares rallied as much as five per cent higher following the announcement and ahead of fourth quarter results due after markets close.