Twitter is Bringing Back the Reverse Chronological Timeline as an Option for Users

Tuesday September 18, 2018 7:03 AM PDT by Mitchel Broussard
Twitter recently confirmed that it is bringing back the classic reverse chronological timeline as an option for its users.

In a series of Tweets sent by @TwitterSupport, the company explained that while it tries to balance showing you the "best" Tweets with the most recent Tweets, it "doesn't always get this balance right" (via TechCrunch).

Following user frustration with this curated selection of Tweets -- which is sometimes mixed in with ads, Tweets your friends like, and more -- the company says it will soon provide an easily accessible way to switch between a timeline of Tweets that are most relevant for you and a timeline of the latest Tweets. The reverse chronological timeline option will come in the form of a test for some users "in the coming weeks."

Twitter will introduce a stopgap solution before the full reverse chronological setting has launched. To do this, Twitter updated the "Show the best Tweets first" setting so that when you toggle it off, you'll only see Tweets from people you follow in reverse chronological order. Before when this was turned off, you'd also see "In case you missed it" Tweets and recommended Tweets from people you don't follow -- now all of this won't show up.

The company didn't divulge when the full and "easier-to-access" reverse chronological timeline setting will launch, but says it will announce further details via @TwitterSupport.

Twitter first rolled out its algorithm-focused timeline in early 2016, curating Tweets for each user based on their activity and ditching the simple reverse chronological flow of Tweets. The company tried to allow some form of customization with buttons that trained the algorithm for Tweets you might not like, but many users still opted for third-party apps like Tweetbot, which stick to a reverse chronological format and don't include ads, "In case you missed it," recommended Tweets, etc.

Tag: Twitter
16 comments


Top Rated Comments

(View all)
Avatar
DocMultimedia
4 weeks ago
Tweetbot. Until Twitter kills third party apps. Then RIP my Twitter usage.
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
scrapesleon
4 weeks ago
Instagram take notes
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
cocky jeremy
4 weeks ago

Tweetbot. Until Twitter kills third party apps. Then RIP my Twitter usage.

Same. I've tweeted them every time they've taken steps to kill third party Twitter apps.

"You're not making it more likely for me to use your client, you're making it less likely I use your service all together."

Tweetbot or nothing for me.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
thisisnotmyname
4 weeks ago
Good, although my twitter use has gone WAY down since they dropped their Mac client.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
mw360
4 weeks ago

I'm just annoyed Twitter started their tweet with "So..." It's a bad habit almost all young people are doing and it's pretty annoying. if you can drop the word "so" and the sentence still makes sense, it doesn't need to be included.


The tweet is 4th in a thread. If you read tweet 3 you'll see why 4 starts with so.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
AlliFlowers
4 weeks ago
I hate being forced to use the crappy Twitter client. I've had several good years using Tweetbot.

I don't want them to determine what tweets are best. I just want a continuous scroll as the new tweets come in. Just like I used to have with Tweetbot!

I'd be perfectly willing to pay Twitter directly for "premium use" to kill the ads. Have they not thought of this approach?
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
charlituna
4 weeks ago

Tweetbot. Until Twitter kills third party apps. Then RIP my Twitter usage.


they cut off several API so they have already killed many of the apps
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
OldSchoolMacGuy
4 weeks ago

Good, although my twitter use has gone WAY down since they dropped their Mac client.


TweetDeck is still available for Mac and works well.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
adamjackson
4 weeks ago
I'm just annoyed Twitter started their tweet with "So..." It's a bad habit almost all young people are doing and it's pretty annoying. if you can drop the word "so" and the sentence still makes sense, it doesn't need to be included.
Rating: 1 Votes
[ Read All Comments ]