Twitter is taking one of its most important characteristics out of its configuration and putting it within reach. Twitter is now testing with a small number of iOS users, a home screen button that allows you to instantly switch from your algorithmic timeline showing the best tweets first but out of place to the old chronological channel Inverse that only shows people follows: to tweets that you do not like friends or other randomness.
Twitter had previously buried this option in its configuration. In in mid-September he set the configuration to only show a reverse chronological progress of the tweets by people you still do not add anything to, and promised a more accessible design for the function in the future. Now we have our first look. A small Twitter spark icon at the top opens a menu where you can toggle between the best tweets and the latest tweets, plus a link to your content settings. It would be even better if it were a single touch.
Twitter Product VP Kayvon Beykpour tweeted that "We want to make it easier to switch between seeing the latest tweets from the main tweets, so we're experimenting with making this a top-level switch instead of buried in the configuration Comments welcome … what do you think? "
Given the backlash in 2016, when Twitter began to switch to an algorithmically ordered timeline based on what you did, many users will probably think that This is great, whether you're trying to follow a sports game, a political debate, breaking news or just stick to Twitter and want the order to make more sense, there are many reasons why you could switch to inverse chronological
Even so, Twitter's apprehension of making the configuration too accessible makes sense. Unconditional users may prefer the Inverse chronological, but for most people who only open Twitter several times a day or a week, that means they are likely to miss the tweets of their closest friends who could drown with the noise of everyone else. The growth rate of Twitter users increased after the change to algorithmic.
We asked if the configuration returns to the default configuration of Top Tweets when closing the application. That could be frustrating for some expert users, but it could prevent new users from getting stuck accidentally in reverse chronological order and not knowing how to change again. The company tells TechCrunch that it is testing several different duration options for the configuration based on the user's inactivity to see what works best. For example, a version will revert the configuration to the default value of Top Tweets if they have gone for a day. That method would ensure that people who have been inactive long enough to forget to change their timeline settings will regain the default value and will not end up trapped in a chronological chasm.
If Twitter regains the default situation, the new button could make the service much more flexible, thus increasing usage. You can start with the algorithm in the morning or after a weekend to see what was lost, then alternate quickly to revert chronologically if something big happens or you will be all day without stopping all day to get the pulse of the world in real time .