The most sought-after and controversial Twitter change has come. And no, it certainly isn’t limited to a logo change like Uber’s.
This week, Twitter has finally revealed that the team had been working on a redesigned version of its timeline - the latest in a string of surprises and announcements regarding its new features, updates, and other changes.
The aforementioned update was apparently in the works for quite some time already. The new and improved Twitter timeline, seemingly borrowing from Facebook’s tried and tested news feed formula, uses algorithms to determine the order in which tweets are displayed to users, rather than the strict reverse chronological order that long-time Twitter denizens have gotten used to.
"Before today, you could see individual Tweets but it was hard to discover stories and conversations happening on Twitter without signing in. Now, you can check out a news story as it unfolds," explains Paul Lambert, the product manager of Twitter. The Facebook-like timeline will be accessible to users across 23 countries, including India, who visit the twitter.com home page more often on their mobile devices.
In the face of this new announcement, many Facebook users have voiced out their opinions regarding the updated feature of the microblogging site, stating that they “ detest the News Feed Algorithm and badly want what Twitter has had from the start: a pure, unfiltered stream.”
Interestingly, the update still offers its loyal fans a choice, as users can also choose to opt out of the algorithmic timeline, should they wish to keep their old settings.
"Twitter is real-time. Twitter is about who & what you follow. And Twitter is here to stay! By becoming more Twitter-y," says Jack Dorsey, Twitter's chief executive and co-founder. "We're going to continue to refine it to make Twitter feel more, not less, live!"
It has also been mentioned that the Twitter team has been seeing an increase in engagement when it comes to ads and tweets about live events. This is despite the fact that advertisers have been expressing concern over the possibility that the ads on the new Twitter timeline may be negatively affected by the shift from a reverse-chronological format.
Dorsey posted a series of tweets last week to reassure the users that Twitter will remain the go-to place for live news and commentary.
Twitter has definitely exceeded everyone’s expectations with its newly announced changes - and it’s just the start of the year! The microblogging site has been undergoing numerous efforts to improve their content and are still looking for ways to elevate and attract more users. This, of course, is part of the overall plan for the social media titan to stay ahead in the industry. We can’t wait for what’s to come!
Readers: What do you think of this update? Feel free to share your thoughts with us!
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