As rumored, Twitter today announced that an algorithmic feature is starting to roll out. The feature isn’t referred to as an “algorithmic timeline,” though.
When the feature is enabled, Twitter will show you tweets that “you’re most likely to care about” at the top of your feed. Your regular timeline will appear below, and both will be in reverse chronological order. Right now, the feature sounds a bit like an improved version of the “While You Were Away” feature that’s been in Twitter in the past.
Once you’ve read these tweets, you can refresh your timeline to get the up-to-the-minute feed that you’re accustomed to. And if you’re not feeling this new feature, you can turn it off by going into your Twitter app’s settings and toggling off “Show me the best tweets first.” Another way to avoid the feature would be to download a third-party Twitter client.
This new feature doesn’t sound like it’s going to totally re-order your timeline and show tweets from people you don’t follow like some had worried that it might. That said, some users probably won’t care to have these algorithmically selected tweets appear at the top of their Twitter timeline, opting instead to simply jump right into their feed where they left off. The good news for those folks is that the feature can easily be disabled, at least for now.