Twitter is overhauling its app design and the first change is about swiping
If you logged onto Twitter today and saw that your feed looked slightly different, brace yourself -- it's only the beginning.
On Wednesday, Twitter began rolling out swipeable feeds, allowing users to switch between "For you" and "Following" tabs.
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The change is part of a larger UI overhaul, according to Twitter owner Elon Musk.
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The update will first be available on iOS and replaces the previous "Home" and "Latest" tabs.
With the update, users will be able to take advantage of Twitter's algorithm-defined feed while also having access to a chronological feed of accounts they follow.
See the Tweets you want to see. Starting today on iOS, swipe between tabs to see Tweets recommended “For you” or Tweets from the accounts you’re “Following.”
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 11, 2023
The perks of scrolling on the algorithm's generated feed is that it shows you content that is meant to align with your interests, according to content and topics you follow, as well as previous Twitter activity -- much like TikTok's "For you" page.
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However, despite the algorithm's best efforts, sometimes the recommendations can miss the mark. That is why Twitter is bringing the "Following" tab to the app, so that you have a place to go to only see content from the accounts you follow.
Musk Tweeted about this update over the weekend, along with other updates that will be coming to the app shortly as part of a "much larger UI overhaul." The next update you can expect is a bookmark button rolling out later this week.
Easy swipe right/left to move between recommended vs followed tweets rolls out later this week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2023
First part of a much larger UI overhaul.
Bookmark button (de facto silent like) on Tweet details rolls out a week later.
Long form tweets early Feb.
Currently, the only way to group content you like in one place is by liking a Tweet. The problem is that everyone can see what content you have liked, limiting what posts you choose to like. Musk refers to the bookmark button as a "silent like" because it will be a way for users to privately flag posts they want to revisit later, much like the bookmarking feature on Instagram and TikTok.
The final update Musk mentioned is long-form tweets, which could be coming to the app as early as the beginning of February. Currently, Twitter has a character limit of 280 characters, which is double the amount of characters that was initially allowed when the app launched. In December, Musk confirmed that new limit would be 4,000 characters.