After nearly a week of seeing #RIPTwitter trend on Twitter, the social network finally unveiled a controversial new timeline feature that presents tweets out of chronological order.
Back on Feb. 5, Buzzfeed News revealed that Twitter was planning to roll out an algorithmic timeline that would focus on popular tweets in a user’s network instead of listing tweets in reverse chronological order. Since it was still not clear if Twitter would impose this change or make it optional, many Twitter users complained, suggesting that it would make Twitter more like Facebook, which has its own “Top News” newsfeed.
Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey responded to the backlash on Feb. 6, insisting that “we never planned to reorder timelines next week.” He also wrote that “Twitter is live.”
Twitter announced the “Home” feature BuzzFeed reported on and noted that it is an optional feature that users will have to turn on. It will allow you to see tweets that you might have missed from followers you interact with at the top of the timeline. These will also be put in reverse chronological order. If you refresh the timeline, the tweets go away and you return to the normal chronological timeline.
“We think this is a great way to get even more out of Twitter and we're excited for you to experience it. Let us know what you think!” the post from Twitter reads.
These changes come as Twitter has seen its stock tumble as the company struggles to attract new users. The company also lost a group of executives last month and has seen other new features fail with current users.