Twitter introduces ‘best’ tweet first on timeline option

Social media platform Twitter seeks to inject more life into its platform by allowing the “best” tweets rise up on its timeline.

Following the steps of leading social media rivals Facebook, the platform seeks to revive its struggling messaging service by moving away from a pure chronological timeline to one determined by algorithm.
The move is coming despite displeasure and warnings of a revolt from users loyal to real-time flow of the messaging platform.

Read also: Twitter blocks 125,000 accounts for terror content

Twitter said the “Show me the best tweets first” feature is optional and that users can stick with tweets rushing by like leaves on a fast-moving river, if they prefer.

“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,” senior engineering manager Mike Jahr said in a blog post.

“Starting today, you can choose a new timeline feature that helps you catch up on the most important tweets from the people you follow.”

Sources say the algorithm was most likely built on a “while you were away” feature that Twitter introduced about a year ago to show people notable posts they missed while not using the service.

“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,” Jahr said.

“Then the rest of the tweets will be displayed right underneath, also in reverse chronological order, as always.”

According to Jahr, “Twitter users can refresh a page to begin seeing live, real-time tweets as usual”.

With the new feature, “we’ve improved the timeline by analyzing how millions of people engage with billions of tweets,” said product marketing manager Eric Farkas.

“We’re using this information to determine the best content to surface. We use a person’s past Twitter activity to predict which tweets they might like to see most.”

The “Show me the best tweets first” feature is available to people accessing Twitter using a Web browser or applications on mobile devices powered by Apple or Android software.

“We’ve already noticed that people who have used this new feature tend to retweet and tweet more, which is good for everyone,” Jahr said.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now