On Saturday, BuzzFeed reported that Twitter is planning to introduce a new algorithmic timeline, and that this could happen as soon as this week. According to that, the timeline would reorder tweets based on what Twitter’s algorithm thinks users want to see most.
Naturally, Twitter users didn’t respond with arms wide open. #RIPTwitter became the trend.
CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted this in response:
Hello Twitter! Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we're always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
Twitter is live. Twitter is real-time. Twitter is about who & what you follow. And Twitter is here to stay! By becoming more Twitter-y.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
Look at "while you were away" at the top of your TL. Tweets you missed from people you follow. Pull to refresh to go back to real-time.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
I *love* real-time. We love the live stream. It's us. And we're going to continue to refine it to make Twitter feel more, not less, live!
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
Twitter can help make connections in real-time based on dynamic interests and topics, rather than a static social/friend graph. We get it.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
Thank you all for your passion and trust. We will continue to work to earn it, and we will continue to listen, and talk!
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
In other words, hey Twitter users, remember all those other times Twitter made tweaks and everything turned out ok? Settle down.
The Verge reports that it has seen the redesigned timeline, and shares some details. According to that, it’s basically an extended version of the While You Were Away Feature, and you can opt out of it.
Everyone also seems to be taking the all-important Lists feature for granted too. I’ve seen nothing to indicate that these lists, which guarantee you see everything from the people you want to (like normal), are changing in any way.
I think everything is going to be ok.
Image via Jack Dorsey (Twitter)