Twitter’s rumored adoption of a full algorithmic feed for users, a la Facebook, has been a point of contention for many users recently. The rumored move even garnered the hashtag #riptwitter , showing users’ fears that Twitter may lose what differentiates it from other services. CEO Jack Dorsey sent out a tweet indicating that this would not happen. A feature somewhat like the one rumored has been officially announced and is rolling out, however, on an opt-in basis. Users who choose to use the new feature, depending on who they follow and engage with, will see a smattering of tweets that Twitter thinks they would find important or useful when they open up the app, if they’ve been gone a while. These tweets will sit at the top of their regular, reverse-chronological feed.
The new feature is available in the main settings menu, shown as “Show me the best tweets first”. Users who opt in will find, if they haven’t opened the app in a while, they’ll see tweets from those they engage with often up top. The number of accounts a user follows, how much they engage with other users and how long they’ve been away will all play a role in determining how many tweets and which ones hop to the top of their feed upon opening the app. Users that follow relatively few accounts or check in often will likely not see the feature too often, but those who follow hundreds or even thousands of accounts will likely be seeing this feature often, showing them tweets from those they engage with most often before others. Aside from those moved to the top, a user’s feed will remain the same as it has always been.
This move is strictly opt-in and only affects certain tweets and not the whole feed, which should relieve those who made use of the #riptwitter hashtag in the past. The feature will only show up on the official Twitter app, leaving third-party apps to operate as they always have. This does open up the door for sponsored links to get promoted, but there has been no word on that as of now. Hit up the source link to see the official announcement. With the official announcement up on Twitter’s website, if you’re not seeing the update in the Play Store or App Store, you should soon.