Twitter has fixed a bug that removed the option to switch between the chronological (latest tweets) and algorithmic (top tweets) views of the main feed for some users on the web. The “star” icon at the top of the timeline, which let you quickly switch between the two views with a single click, was simply missing for the affected users.
Though the issue wasn’t very widespread, the underlying cause was unclear. There were speculations that the company was preparing to completely remove this option from Twitter for web. However, that was a false alarm as Twitter has now confirmed that it was a bug and that it has been fixed.
“Tweets in chronological order on web has been fixed – the option to switch your Home timeline view to latest Tweets first was removed for some of you on web. We’ve fixed this and the option should now be available again for everyone,” Twitter Support said in a statement.
A Twitter bug had removed the ‘latest tweets’ button
Twitter introduced the quick toggle to switch between the “latest tweets” and “top tweets” view in late 2018. The change came after users complained that they often missed certain tweets as their Home timeline showed some unwanted tweets first because they were the “best” or “top”. In Twitter’s defense, the company did offer a setting to disable the “best tweets first” option. However, it needed users to ding into settings.
The new toggle eased things a lot. Users could switch to either view as and when they want. Everything was working nicely until some users earlier this week reported the icon to be missing from their timeline. Though it was only missing for a fraction of Twitter users on the web client, some outlets reported that the company was removing it completely.
Those reports based their assumptions on an official support document that hadn’t been updated since January 2019. The document mentioned the quick toggle was available on Twitter for Android and iOS only. However, that’s not the case. Twitter for web also offers this functionality and it was a bug that removed the button for some users recently.
Anyways, Twitter has now fixed the bug. Also, the company has updated the support document to reflect that its web client features that option as well. After all, it’s one of the most important features on Twitter. The uproar when it went missing for some users speaks volumes about how much people want it. Hopefully, everyone is now seeing that “star” icon at the top of their timeline.