Twitter is rolling out a major change on iOS by replacing the “sparkle” button that switched between the algorithmic and reverse chronological feeds. Now, users will have to swipe between two tabs called “For You” and “Following” to change their timeline, and the “For You” tab will always appear first when you open the app.
The company has more or less borrowed the name “For You” from TikTok, instead of using the “Home” moniker it had before. As with TikTok, it shows tweets from accounts you follow out of order, along with algorithmically-selected tweets from others you may like.
Twitter had introduced a similar feature earlier this year, allowing users to swipe between “Home” and “Latest Tweets” to switch timelines, but abandoned it days later due to complaints from users who didn’t like the fact that “Home” was basically forced upon them.
The company seems determined to implement it again, with a different name and it may generate similar complaints. On the web or current Android app, selecting the chronological feed is a permanent choice and stays even if you close the app, but with the new iOS version, “For You” always appears when you close and reopen the app, so users will have to switch to “Following” every single time.
Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, had promised to make this change late last year, tweeting that “main timeline should allow for an easy sideways swipe between the top, latest, trending and topics that you follow.” With two of those now implemented, we could see further changes down the road.
