While users can still opt out of the new timeline – for now, at least – the company began making it the default setting for users.
At some time during the past few days, Twitter began to activate its algorithmic timeline, which organizes a user’s timeline (where they see the tweets of users that they have followed) based off what the company thinks they will be most interested in. Previously, Twitter had used a reverse chronological order timeline.
When the feature was first introduced, it was portrayed as a feature that users could choose to activate, with Senior Engineering Manager Mike Jahr writing: “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.”
The new feature, and the option to opt-in, was announced on the company’s blog on February 10. At that time, the company said that it would be turning the feature on “in the coming weeks.”
Critics of the new timeline have stated that, by intentionally following specific users, they are already making the choice of what content they want to see. Others have expressed concern that this tool could be used to filter out controversial voices. True or not, at this time it is still possible to opt out of this new timeline in your settings.
