Twitter will soon allow you to switch between chronological and classified flows

Twitter has surprisingly changed the way tweets are broadcast to its users, following a viral thread on ways to reverse the algorithmic timeline of the platform. Now, when you uncheck the "Show best tweets first" box, Twitter will completely restore your timeline in a non-algorithmic inverted chronological order. This is how Twitter was designed and operated for years by default algorithmic model in early 2016.

Before the change, unchecking the box would always result in tweets "in case you missed it", tweets recommended by people you did not follow, and tweets informing you that someone that you follow liked or interacted with someone's tweet. Twitter now recognizes that its users want more control over their calendar and that the initial setup tool and its operation were not an adequate solution to fix it.

Twitter says it has been planning this update for some time now. But it happens to arrive after a User suggestion Twitter Emma Kinema This morning, muting certain word strings – such as "suggest_recycled_tweet_inline" – could be a roundabout way of removing the suggested tweets and highlights that Twitter's algorithm has been incorporated into your calendar. The tweet went viral, bringing together more than 15,000 retweets and nearly 40,000 "likes," and he clearly pointed out the demand from users to have more control over what they saw when they opened the Twitter app. The company confirmed to The edge that the suggestion would not work fully for each user. Instead, Twitter is refining its timeline settings to be more transparent and to allow greater user control while developing a better solution for the future.

"We learned that when the first Tweets are presented first, people find that Twitter is more relevant and useful. However, we have heard the reactions of people who sometimes prefer to see the most recent Tweets, "reads the statement of the company. "Our goal with the timeline is to balance showing you the most recent Tweets with the best Tweets you're probably interested in, but we do not always have that balance."

Twitter says it is working to provide "an easily accessible way to switch between a timeline of tweets most relevant to you and a timeline of the latest tweets."

One important thing to note here, however, is that much of the value we derive from Twitter today is due to the algorithmic calendar of the company. More tweets are becoming viral faster than ever, largely because Twitter's automated software can help these tweets spread through its network faster, and because the algorithmic timeline keeps older tweets in different contexts.

The algorithmic timeline was initially designed as a way to keep people more engaged by Twitter and more able to digest what's happening on the platform, as it traditionally evolves very quickly and becomes difficult to analyze for new users. In addition to the algorithmic timeline, Twitter introduced Moments, which has since replaced the search field's default screen and simply appears as a highlighted section titled "What's going on". Both have been able to inject Twitter with relevance, users can digest news, engage in more conversations and simply get in touch with more viral tweets from the network. (It should be noted that boosting engagement on Twitter in turn drives advertising revenue, so there has always been a commercial incentive.)

Of course, these changes also made Twitter heavier for those who only want chronological reverse chronologies, and the switchover of parameters that, in theory, disabling the algorithmic timeline did not do it completely. It's good to see Twitter respond to the criticisms it has received over the years, and it's an approach that platform companies, like Instagram for example, could take.

If all goes well, with other more granular customization options to come, Twitter users can develop a schedule that meets their needs. I like from time to time a good viral tweet, especially accounts I'm happy to have been exposed to. But liking a tweet and realizing his age of 18 hours, or being unable to determine when the information is broken because my schedule is being redeemed by retweeted content and suggested tweets, has made Twitter more unpleasant than necessary.

Updated 17/17, 20:50 ET: Clarified that Twitter has been planning this update for some time and that it was not in direct response to today's viral tweet regarding the mute of certain keywords to disable Twitter's algorithmic timeline.