Twitter Makes Algorithmic “For You” Feed the New Default on iOS
- Laurent Giret
- Jan 11, 2023
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Twitter has started rolling out a new change on its iOS app that will probably be controversial. Users who open the app will now be welcomed by an algorithmic “For You” feed, and the chronological feed is now a swipe away.
“The “For you” and “Following” tabs replace “Home” and “Latest” and will be pinned to the top of your timeline so you can easily switch between them. Swipe to switch timelines instead of tapping the star icon,” the Twitter Support team explained.
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The main issue with this change is that you can’t make the non-algorithmic “Following” feed the default when you open the app. If you use Twitter mostly as a real-time news feed, the iOS app will now show you recommended tweets first.
The “For you” and “Following” tabs replace “Home” and “Latest” and will be pinned to the top of your timeline so you can easily switch between them. Swipe to switch timelines instead of tapping the ✨ icon.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 11, 2023
For now, the new interface is only available on iOS and there’s no word yet on if or when it’s coming to other platforms. If you really dislike this change, you still have the option to use third-party Twitter clients, and you may also see fewer ads by doing so.
In many ways, Twitter pushing its algorithmic feed to all users echoes what other social networks, including TikTok and Instagram have been doing for quite some time. While this isn’t explicit yet, Twitter’s algorithm is likely going to give more exposure to tweets coming from accounts with a Twitter Blue subscription.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently said that he wanted to show “how much more alive Twitter is than it may seem,” and making the “For You” feed the new default probably helps with that. Twitter also recently started displaying view counts on tweets, which lets users see how many times a tweet has been seen.