The social network business most closely linked with the reverse-chronological feed announced Monday that it would put on hold plans to allow users to easily swipe between the Latest and Home timelines, as previously announced. The issue appeared to be the company’s disappointing decision to default all users to the algorithm-fueled timeline dubbed “Home,” rather than the ability to simply switch between the two layouts.
This isn’t the first time Twitter has tried to make its algorithmically generated timeline the default, showing users posts from individuals they don’t follow. In 2016, the corporation attempted to move people away from the reverse-chronological feed. Twitter conceded defeat once more on Monday.
On March 14, the business tweeted, “We heard you –– some of you always want to view the freshest Tweets first.” “For the time being, we’ve turned the timeline back and disabled the tabbed experience while we look at other solutions.”
Notably, Twitter appears to recognize that a sizable part of its users do not want the Home timeline to be their default – the company acknowledged this in its Monday mea culpa. Instead of acting on this information, the business oddly abandoned the tabbed timeline attempt.
https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1503443926258180106
Of course, Twitter may keep the option to swipe between timelines while not forcing users to utilize the Home timeline by default. Users who were previously perplexed by the two streams would be able to see which timeline they were on at any given time.
Twitter’s chief of consumer product, Jay Sullivan, stepped in, saying that users’ “choices should be honored.”
If Sullivan is correct, Twitter executives have finally grasped the lesson they failed to comprehend in 2016: users prefer to see their Twitter feed in reverse chronological order.