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Twitter’s algorithmic timeline now fully rolled out, few opt-outs reported

As the rollout of the "new improved" timeline reaches all Twitter users, the company says fewer than 10 percent of users have opted out.

Matt McGee on March 18, 2016 at 2:33 pm

Twitter has completed the full rollout of its “new improved” timeline — the timeline that shows top tweets first, rather than showing all tweets in reverse chronological order. And what may come as a surprise to some is that Twitter says opt-outs of the new timeline experience are few and far between.

“Since we launched the update to the timeline, we’re seeing very few people choosing to opt out of the experience — it’s in the low single digits,” a Twitter spokesperson tells Marketing Land via email, referring to the percentage of overall Twitter users.

When reports of the timeline change first surfaced in early February, Twitter users responded with a flood of tweets using the #RIPTwitter hashtag — a prediction of Twitter’s demise. The hashtag quickly trended, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey even stepped in to calm users by saying the chronological timeline wouldn’t go away.

The new timeline launched days later, initially as an opt-in feature. In its February 10 announcement, Twitter said it would soon turn the feature on by default for all users. That’s now complete, and users are being notified of the change with an alert at the top of their timelines, like the one shown in the image above. Twitter offers users a “Change my settings” option, but few are apparently doing so.

In addition to the low number of opt-outs, Twitter also says it’s seeing “positive increases” in other metrics such as Daily Usage, Per User Favorites, Per User Retweets, Per User Replies and Per User Tweets.

The term “positive increases” is vague, and Twitter’s spokesperson declined to put any specific numbers on those metrics. It seems safe to assume, though, that any uptick in user activity is welcome news at Twitter headquarters.

Postscript: This article has been edited to reflect the correct timeline surrounding the #RIPTwitter hashtag and the official announcement of the timeline change.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.