The return of the For You Twitter feed
To say that Twitter’s ongoing mass of changes since Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform has been stormy at best, maybe an understatement. Plenty of people thinking Musk will shutter the platform to changes in the algorithm, to blue ticks (previously denoting someone’s status or importance) being removed and sold on subscription. There have been plenty of changes that have caused Twitter users to raise an eyebrow or two.
A few days after introducing a tabbed timeline layout at the beginning of last year, Twitter probably made the right choice by shuttering the change early. The algorithm made it challenging to identify recent tweets from people you automatically follow, but Twitter is resuming that strategy, at least initially on iOS.
Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, today unveiled a new tabbed style for its home page, again with the former being the default view, where your feed is divided into the algorithm and reverse chronological tabs. This implies that you will see tweets from friends and complete strangers when you first open the program.
The social media platform seems to copy a trademarked name from rival TikTok. As you might have predicted, Twitter’s new default feed, “For you,” displays tweets from users you follow with tweets the site deems relevant to you. The “Following” feed, which presents tweets in chronological order but in reverse is the alternative feed. These were formerly known as “Home” and “Latest”.
See the Tweets you want to see. Starting today on iOS, swipe between tabs to see Tweets recommended “For you” or Tweets from the accounts you’re “Following.”
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 11, 2023
When using the previous user interface, you could make its reverse chronological feed the primary view, and it’d remain after closing and reopening the application. With the most recent update, irrespective of your earlier settings, the For you tab will always appear first when you open Twitter.
It hadn’t gone over very well with those who prefer to receive tweets sorted order by default. Last year, the same action sparked criticism, which led Twitter to temporarily stop the tabbed design. That function has now reappeared under a new name, and who knows how long it will stick around this time.