Twitter to launch algorithmic timeline as early as next week
Jack Dorsey has shown he’s not afraid of making changes.
Since he retook the helm at Twitter last October, the firm has axed favs, replacing them with likes, and could be binning its unique 140-character limit.
But it looks like Twitter’s biggest change yet is in the works now.
Reports in Buzzfeed suggest Twitter is planning to roll out an algorithmic timeline as early as next week.
Flipping the switch will change the way your timeline works: Instead of a chronological order, it’ll show tweets based on what the algorithm thinks you’d most like to see.
(Sound familiar? Yes, it’s a lot more like Facebook’s news feed.)
The reverse chronological order has been a core part of Twitter since its start in 2006, so this would be a major change. It’s still unclear whether an algorithmic timeline would be optional or an automatic update.
Twitter users are taking the news with all the calm and aplomb you might expect.
https://twitter.com/michelledeidre/status/695803988839522305
https://twitter.com/muchADEW/status/695809831958138880
Twitter, of course, currently needs all the help it can get. Despite rolling out a host of new product features, the social media platform has failed to attract new users in the same way its rivals Facebook and Instagram have.
The firm’s stock has been steadily forging new fresh lows, losing a third of its value since the start of 2016 alone, and analysts have begun speculating about it as a potential takeover target.
