Twitter is going through the process of making its algorithmic timeline the new default; meaning people will have to opt-out rather than opt-in. It turns out the timeline, which sparked outrage when first announced, may not be so disliked after all.
According to Slate, Twitter has been rolling out the change gradually for a few weeks now — and the responsive has been positive. A Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying there have been very few people to opt-out of the new default timeline. The percentage of users to opt out have been in the “low single digits”.
Not only are people keeping the algorithmic timeline as default, they’re engaging with it more frequently than the traditional timeline. Daily usage — including tweets, replies, retweets, and favorites — are all up amongst those who have not opted out of the new timeline.
Being completely transparent about the change over, Twitter is notifying each user individually as their timeline is switched to the new one. This moves comes just over a month since the algorithmic timeline was introduced. The timeline originally launched as an opt-in feature, designed to surface the best tweets people have missed since the last time they logged in.
If you don’t love the new timeline, don’t worry, you can still revert to the old one. Even though it’s the new default, you’re completely free to opt out of it. Simply go to the settings section and uncheck “Show me the best tweets first”.
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