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In a controversial move, Twitter brought back a feature that removes the “Latest Tweets” view for users on iOS, something many users, myself included, hated in March 2022 – and it’s rolling out now.
The first time the company decided to do this, “Home” would appear first in a tab at the top, and there was no way to change this so that “Latest Tweets” would be the default view. It was rolled back after the company said it was a “bug” for iOS users.
However, this time it is not a bug. Instead, it’s “For You” and “Following” that you can now only swipe between, which doesn’t make much sense for a platform where you use the platform to keep up to date with who you’re following.
It’s a bizarre change that makes me wonder – who wants this, especially at a time when the new owner, Elon Musk, is still making changes and rolling back almost every week?
This one change will have major implications for Twitter
View the Tweets you want to see. Starting today on iOS, swipe between tabs to see Tweets recommended to you or Tweets from the accounts you’re following.January 11, 2023
You check Twitter to read the latest tweets from your followers – that’s the first thing most users do when they load up Twitter on an iPhone or Android device. It’s a way to keep up to date with what’s going on.
I have friends who use it as a continuous news feed, similar to how an RSS feed used to work, which was a way to subscribe to certain sites and get a page of all the collected content in one place.
With this new switch rolling out without any sign that it was an accident, it sets a risky precedent for the platform that those in charge simply don’t know how the users are interacting with Twitter. It makes finding content more difficult to discover with these new tabs, and most of all, it looks bad from a design perspective.
In what feels like I’m in a sequel to Groundhog Day with Twitter, let’s hope we flip this feature, then throw it away and never see it again.