Twitter turns on algorithmic timeline for all users, forcing people to turn it off to see chronological tweets

The site announced the change months ago, but was previously only opt-in, rather than opt-out

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 17 March 2016 13:14 EDT
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Twitter logo is displayed at the entrance of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco
Twitter logo is displayed at the entrance of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco (KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/Getty Images)

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Twitter’s new algorithmic timeline now appears to have been switched on for everyone.

Many if not all users are now seeing tweets out of order as part of Twitter’s experiment with non-chronological timelines, according to The Next Web. The company announced the feature weeks ago, but initially it was only opt-in.

As the site points out, Twitter has updated its documentation to reflect the fact that it must now be turned off.

“Tweets you are likely to care about most will show up first in your timeline,” the newly-changed guide reads. “We choose them based on accounts you interact with most, Tweets you engage with, and much more. You can find instructions for how to turn off this behavior here.”

The feature can be turned off by heading to the account settings page. Head to the Timeline options and find the setting for “Show me the best Tweets first”, and make sure that is unticked.

Twitter first launched the feature on 10 February. When it did so it encouraged people to change their settings but the feature still had to be opted in to.

Now that appears to be turned off as Twitter had suggested would happen at launch.

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