Twitter launched a new feature allowing users to tap on a sparkle button and switch between the most recent tweets and the most popular tweets, available on iOS and coming soon to Android.
New on iOS! Starting today, you can tap ✨ to switch between the latest and top Tweets in your timeline. Coming soon to Android. pic.twitter.com/6B9OQG391S
— Twitter (@Twitter) December 18, 2018
Twitter had long been pushing top tweets on the timeline. The best tweets shown, were a result of algorithms based on the accounts most engaged with, tweets most interacted with or most liked among other parameters. The purpose of the feature being a more suitable & relevant timeline.
They also stated in a blog that, “We’ve already seen that people who use this new feature tend to Retweet and Tweet more, creating more live commentary and conversations, which is great for everyone.”
Although, the platform faced backlash by certain users, reasons being, the most interacted with tweets are so because those are the only tweets that show up on the timeline and Twitter cannot know what's best for the users by basing it on algorithms.
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Showing the best tweets kind of contradicted with the company's purpose which is "See what's happening in the world right now." Twitter is a platform for people-on-the-go to know what's happening in the world right now, in under 280 characters as several publications, organisations and personalities use it to circulate information with it's global reach.
People who anticipated this feature would get it now(not Android). Users who liked to see top tweets first would be untroubled too.
If you'd like to switch to newest tweets on desktop, follow these steps; Click your profile picture on the top-right, tap the Account option on the left menu, under "Content" make sure the box for "Show the best tweets first" is unchecked.