Twitter Reverts Tabbed Timeline After User Complaints

Only a few days after setting it live, Twitter has reverted a change to its users’ timelines on iOS that had immediately proved controversial.

Twitter has decided to roll back the tabbed experience that separated the chronological and personalized timelines. The move comes after a lot of users criticized the new change, which essentially removed the ability to show the latest tweets by default.

Twitter announced the tabbed experience last week, starting with the iOS app. The new experience allowed users to pin the chronological timeline on the home page. However, as pointed out by many Twitter users, this new change took away the ability to display the latest tweets by default.

We heard you –– some of you always want to see latest Tweets first. We've switched the timeline back and removed the tabbed experience for now while we explore other options. https://t.co/euVcPr9ij6

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 14, 2022

While users could pin the “Latest Tweets” to the home page, but there was no way to set it as the main timeline; one would always see the algorithmic timeline by default when you open the Twitter app.

Since the change didn’t sit well with users, Twitter says it’s removing the tabbed timeline “for now” as it explores other options.

The update had only dropped on iOS, but had previously been announced for Android and the web as well, so it’s quite a major about-face for the company, although one that demonstrates it’s at least willing to listen to criticism when it comes in waves.

Like so many social media giants before it, including both Facebook and Instagram, Twitter is learning that many of its users will always prefer a feed that shows the latest content, if only as a way of escaping the pressures of a feed that endlessly refreshes with new content regardless of whether any has actually been posted.