Twitter makes it harder to choose the old reverse-chronological feed

Twitter is rolling out a change that, frustratingly, makes it a bit harder to see your chronological feed.

The design change, which helps you to swipe between your House (algorithmically served) and Newest (reverse chronological) timelines, was announced Thursday. To set it up, you faucet the glint icon within the prime proper nook, and also you’ll see the choice to pin your “Newest timeline,” and if you choose that, you’ll see each “House” and “Newest Tweets” tabs on the prime of the iOS app. Should you use pinned lists on the iOS app, the structure may look acquainted. The characteristic is obtainable first on iOS, and it’s coming “quickly” to Android and the net, Twitter says. (The corporate started testing the characteristic in October.)

To my nice disappointment, nonetheless, I’ve discovered that after testing the characteristic, now I can’t make the chronological feed the default. As an alternative, I can solely have House as my default or arrange the 2 House and Newest Tweets tabs and swap between them as wanted.

It’s not all unhealthy. When leaping between Twitter and different apps on my cellphone, if Newest Tweets was the column I used to be taking a look at, it is going to be the main focus once I return to Twitter. However once I power shut and re-open the app when trying on the Newest Tweets column, the House feed is what Twitter reveals first. Twitter spokesperson Shaokyi Amdo mentioned that the House feed shall be pinned first by default “for now” and confirmed there isn’t a option to pin Newest first by default.

This looks like a giant step again to me. Now, on iOS, any time I need to scroll by means of a reverse-ordered feed like I all the time did earlier than, I’ll must examine first to see if I’m trying on the proper feed. Fortuitously, at the very least for now, Newest can nonetheless be the default on the internet for me — together with on my iPhone’s Safari.

Twitter first started rolling out its algorithmic timeline in 2016 (to some high-profile uproar) and launched the glint icon to allow you to toggle between the algorithmic and reverse chronological feeds in 2018. To me, the glint all the time felt like a decent-enough option to let the House and Newest timelines co-exist, however with the change introduced Thursday, Twitter appears to be pushing customers towards the algorithmic feed. Instagram, then again, is testing bringing again its chronological feed.