Twitter's Algorithmic 'For You' Feed Becomes Default Timeline on iOS

[MacRumors]

Twitter has made the algorithmic "For You" timeline the default feed that users see when they open the iOS app, a controversial change that the company has tried previously before rolling it back due to a pronounced backlash.

In a change that is sure to draw the ire of some users, Twitter has removed the sparkle-shaped icon from the top-right of the app's interface that let users switch between "For You" and "Latest" and replaced it with two tabs called "For You" and "Following."

"For You" still shows users tweets from people they follow out of order, sprinkled with algorithmically suggested tweets from people they don't, while "Following" shows tweets in pure reverse chronological order.

While the change technically makes it easier to switch timelines – users can now just swipe between them instead of tapping the star icon – users on iOS will now always see the algorithmic "For You" tab when opening the app, whether they want to or not.

Image credit: Jesse Kramer​

Another notable result of the change is that people who use pinned lists for alternative timelines will now need to perform more swipes to get to those lists.

The move comes after CEO Elon Musk last month tweeted that the "main timeline should allow for an easy sideways swipe between top, latest, trending, and topics you follow," and said that the company would be making the changes soon. As of writing though, there are no options to swipe to trending or followed topics, while the old star button still exists on Android and the web.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1612966288300572672

Twitter originally used a reverse chronological feed, showing the newest tweets at the top of the app, before it switched to a timeline that placed a selection of top tweets first. That caused consternation among users, and Twitter eventually added the option to switch back to the pure chronological timeline.

As many will undoubtedly observe, Twitter's decision to prioritize its algorithmic timeline now makes it more akin to the way TikTok works. TikTok learns what users tend to view and pushes them to more of the same suggested content with a similar "For You" feed, which boosts engagement. Whether Twitter's algorithms will have the same success rate remains to be seen.

Article Link: Twitter's Algorithmic 'For You' Feed Becomes Default Timeline on iOS

 

[contacos]

The worst decision. The whole point of following people is to see the things of people YOU decided to follow. Idiots but what am I complaining, first I started to use Tweetbot (which does not have all this nonsense anyway) before closing my account recently all together.

 

[Sal09]

Better renew my Tweetbot subcription then.

 

[error]

Meh. Would be nice if you can set the default feed yourself.

Also 'Twitter for iPhone' is back (I thought Musk got rid of it) and all your photos are cropped at 16:9 again (they changed this in 2021). Weird company, weird impulsive UI.

 

[japanime]

Users made it clear they didn't want this. Elon didn't care. So he's trollling his users. So cute.

 

[andrewxgx]

whats the point of following people when in the end you only see what twitter wants you to see?

same for ig as well

 

[Marbles1]

Haha. Twitter is dire. Musk tries to cover up poor decision making with 'we will try a lot of things and it won't all work'. I don't believe that.

I doubt users will want stuff pushed on them when the majority of engaged twitter users carefully choose who they follow.

If Mastodon had a slick app that made it easy to sign up, twitter would be left behind.

 

[aries81]

Ruining twitter one step at a time

 

[Dredd67]

TikTok, Twitter and all the other so-called social networks are such a disaster in the making. This is so bad, people don't even have the brain cells anymore to realize what these platforms have done to our society.

Siloing people to the point they can't even communicate properly with others, boosting engagement with reward mechanics so much it becomes an addiction, serving curated content that only pleases the reader so they end up denying simple facts and the reality, chronic depression, sexuality disorders, self-confidence crushed (everyone seems to live a better life than me), attention span reduced to that of a goldfish...

This is becoming more and more like a Clockwork Orange dystopia. The only difference is it comes with the consent of the public.

Even the ones driving these monsters have become slaves to their own product.

I'm sorry for the rant, but I'm tired seeing news like that. The issue here is not the homepage of the Twitter app. It's Twitter itself.

As long as people do not realize we would all live so much better without these tools, things will continue to worsen. Public infrastructures desecrated by mobs, unique art pieces destroyed forever, violence and abuses, trust issues with your loved ones up to the people you elected... It's that bad. And all these issues can be rooted in the mob mentality, poor culture, disinformation, misunderstandings and hate incitation driven by these networks. Why? Because that's the optimal way to increase engagement which turns into money, the sole and unique metric used to evaluate the benefit of these "social" platforms.

I'll close this rant by saying just this: we're running out of time. I'm from last generation before the digital natives, but soon there won't be anyone anymore who knows a world without this cancer has existed and it was much happier.

 

[bgarnett]

Been wondering whether Twitter’s on lately, seems to be having issues regularly, and now with understanding user preference with viewing their content. Honestly, worth it any longer?

 

[Bustycat]

For You Elon

 

[Danfango]

I'm getting shares in popcorn the way this is going.

I'm learning how not to ruin our product by watching someone ruin theirs

 

[Porco]

For brevity perhaps they should just shorten it to ‘F You’, which is what it feels like they mean anyway.

 

[Paradoxally]

Time to delete Twitter and move to Mastodon.

Twitter has been terrible for years, Elon just accelerated the process.

 

[lexvo]

Luckily, this doesn't bother me as I am using Tweetbot on all my devices. And then there is also Mastodon.

 

[DeLaSoul]

I love Twitter. It's fun. We should make a sequel to the Sixth Sense and call it the Seventh Sense: "I see angry people." #popcorn.

Oh and if you want to be on a social network all by yourself, try Mastodon. Silence...

 

[whsbuss]

At least give us the ability of opening in a preferred tab. Now I have to switch to following. Geez!

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Hate to break it to you but this has been the default on iOS for a while if you login fresh. You had to switch before with ambiguous "stars" UI button and it would always switch back to "home" view randomly and you had no idea it had done so. They have just made it more obvious now and easier to switch between views (tap or swipe).

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

At least give us the ability of opening in a preferred tab. Now I have to switch to following. Geez!

Indeed, it needs to save the view in user settings and not in cache. Hopefully they fix this.

 

[Reason077]

There's nothing new here except making the UI a bit simpler and cleaner. Twitter has prioritised the algorithmic feed for many years. This change just makes the chronological timeline easier to access, not hidden behind an obscure button!

 

[adammusic]

It is mindblowing how stupid this man is.
The worst person on planet Earth has become tech support for the absolute worst people on Twitter.
He ruined the trending tab. It is now a completely useless old irrelevant way to find out what’s actually happening.
The timeline is an absolute disaster.
All Twitter has left is turning on notifications for a few people.
Any day now he’ll ruin that.

 

[stevet]

Tweetbot for the win. I've never used the Twitter app for any length of time on the phone. It's either drained battery or never syncs correctly.

 

[stevet]

Time to delete Twitter and move to Mastodon.

Twitter has been terrible for years, Elon just accelerated the process.

Mastodon is a mess too.

 

[NoelWalker]

I turned off auto app update just to keep my Twitter app out of date. Tired of all these bs Elon is forcing.

 

[Ctrlos]

Why anybody uses the official app instead of something like Hootsuite, Tweetbot, Twitterrific or Fenyx I will never know.