Twitter just broke itself for a ton of people and it doesn’t seem to get it
- mar
- 12
What you need to know
- Twitter has removed the option to have the chronological timeline be the default way of reading tweets.
- The default view when opening Twitter on iPhone and iPad now shows the 'Home' timeline.
- Third-party apps are not affected by this change.
Now you need to swipe to get to your chronological timeline.
Twitter has removed the option to use the chronological timeline by default, forcing people to switch views if they want to read everything the way nature intended.
The move, which was announced via tweet, means that everyone will now see the 'Home' timeline by default — tweets curated by the Twitter algorithm — rather than the 'Latest Tweets' view that they might prefer. Those tweets are still there, but via a pinned list that has to be selected manually. Every time the Twitter app is closed completely, the algo-generated timeline will come back to the fore.
The Home and Latest timelines are now just a swipe away for everyone on iOS, and soon on Android and web.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 10, 2022
Tap the ✨ icon to pin (or unpin) the Latest timeline to your Home tab for easy access. https://t.co/cj7ofY3CZq pic.twitter.com/XR0ALOQ5Y6
While people could previously decide whether to see the 'Home' or 'Latest Tweets' view by default, that option is now gone completely and people aren't happy about that. The change is only taking place on iOS right now, leaving Android users waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The move is one that greatly benefits Twitter because it now has more control over the tweets and interactions that people will see by default. But it's yet another reason that its app is far from the best iPhone app for actually using its service — at least in terms of reading tweets. Twitter continues to move further and further away from what its core audience believes made it so popular in the first place.
While the change isn't one that takes the chronological feed away completely, it adds just enough friction to make the Twitter experience less enjoyable, as The Verge's Jay Peters points out.
This feels like a big step back to me. Now, on iOS, any time I want to scroll through a reverse-ordered feed like I always did before, I'll have to check first to see if I'm looking at the right feed. Fortunately, at least for now, Latest can still be the default on the web for me — including on my iPhone's Safari.
Anyone wanting to avoid the Twitter algorithm can, for now, use the web-based version in Safari or use a third-party app like Tweetbot or Twitterrific.