Twitter is continuing to tweak their interface for optimal performance, and this newest test isn’t well-received. A new test that is rolling out to select users treats friend’s actions as “newsworthy” showing in the feed and potentially sending the user a notification. Previously this information was contained to the Discover tab, but the notifications on the friend favorites and follows have infiltrated the main feed in this test.
Twitter filling my feed with stuff I didn't ask for – stuff other people follow and fav. pic.twitter.com/IVOViGF1QW — Peter Kafka (@pkafka) August 17, 2014
Of course this extra noise in users’ feeds hasn’t been welcomed with open arms. Many folks aren’t receptive to seeing everything but the kitchen sink in their feed and they aren’t wrong. This new change essentially turns all user actions into Retweets that could take up valuable real estate. The discovery tab was made for this and potting in when a friend follows another user is quite a lot of information.
Ooh now twitter inserting selected "[person you follow] faved" tweets into main timeline pic.twitter.com/zDhrNseNGs — Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) August 16, 2014
While Twitter tests the user interface regularly, let’s hope this change isn’t one that sticks.
For more information see the Verge.
Comments