A new Twitter feature may shift the way that some people use the popular up-to-the-second social media platform.
In a blog post Wednesday morning, Twitter’s Senior Engineering Manager announced an optional change to the way that Twitter organizes its timeline.
Unlike Facebook, which uses an algorithm to determine which posts are most important to people using a variety of factors, Twitter gives its users every tweet from every followed account.
But the new feature will instead compile a list of the tweets that Twitter thinks its users are most likely to care about, in reverse chronological order.
"When you open Twitter after being away for a while, the Tweets you’re most likely to care about will appear at the top of your timeline – still recent and in reverse chronological order," the blog explained. "The rest of the Tweets will be displayed right underneath, also in reverse chronological order, as always."
The blog added that people using the new feature tend to tweet and retweet more often.
The move will be controversial to some; last week, when plans of a Twitter algorithm leaked, the hashtag #RIPTwitter trended worldwide.
Twitter notes that the change is optional and can be turned on or off in the user’s settings.
You can read the full blog post explaining the change here.
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