On June 26, some Twitter users noticed that they were unable to switch from the default timeline mode based on algorithms to the chronological timeline mode when using a web browser application. A few days later, tech website 9to5mac wrote an article stating that chronological tweets “seemingly won’t last”:
Twitter is making a controversial change to its web application. Until recently, Twitter on the web allowed users to easily switch between an algorithmic feed and a chronological feed with a single click, but that option is now being removed completely for people who use Twitter in their browser. …
In recent days, however, Twitter has started to remove the ability to view Latest Tweets first from the Twitter.com web application. For many users, the toggle between “Latest Tweets” and “Home” has been completely removed. The option is still there for some users, but it seemingly won’t last.
An added bit of support for this thesis came from out-of-date or conflicting information from Twitter, as reported by The Verge:
Adding to the confusion, Twitter’s page explaining the timeline has a bullet saying that switching between top tweets (aka tweets served up algorithmically) and latest tweets is a feature that’s only available on iOS and Android. Some took this to mean that the option was really going away, but it turns out that the line has been there for years, according to the WayBack Machine.
It’s possible the line is just a holdover from when the “sparkle” button was first introduced, because it conflicts with information that shows up later in the article: Twitter includes instructions on how to change your timeline order for the web at the bottom of the page.
There are, however, no plans to remove the option to view tweets chronologically, according to Twitter. Responding to the 9to5mac article, Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour tweeted that the issue was a bug and that they were “working on fixing it.” Later, Twitter announced that the problem had been fixed:
Tweets in chronological order on web has been fixed –– the option to switch your Home timeline view to latest Tweets first was removed for some of you on web. We’ve fixed this and the option should now be available again for everyone.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) June 29, 2021
Because the issue was caused by a bug that has since been corrected, we rate the claim that the option to view tweets chronologically is disappearing as “False.”
Is Twitter Getting Rid of Chronological Tweets?
Source: Kapit Pinas
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