Not too long ago, Twitter changed “Home” and “Latest” tabs to “For You” and “Following” feeds – in line with TikTok’s design. But it seems Twitter algorithms didn’t actually work in the micro-blogging platform’s favour. While some ardent Musk followers accepted the change, it largely received negative feedback.
A number of Twitter users said that the change made the app unusable for them and complained about the lack of fresh content.
“Home” and “Latest” tabs
Previously, Twitter offered two different feeds: “latest” which, as the name itself suggests, used to display tweets as things happened and “home,” which showed users the top tweets among accounts and topics they followed.
The “Latest” feed was pretty much loved by the Twitterati as Twitter established itself as a primary source of the latest information. One of the most common examples is the information of an earthquake. People rushed to Twitter to confirm it and get the latest chatter, including tweets, video clips and photos, around it.
“For You” and “Following” tabs
“For You” is an algorithmically generated feed that highlights certain tweets based on the users and conversations which Twitter believes are relevant to the users. It not only displays older posts users might have missed but also tends to bury content from some users – essentially making it difficult to follow live events.
“Following” tab is pretty much like “Latest” tweets but there’s a catch. The tab will only show the latest tweets posted by people users follow. There is no quick and easy way to get to know the things as they happen.
How to see tweets that you want
These changes beg the question, “how to see tweets that I want to see?” Currently, the only way you can be up to date is by following as many accounts as you can follow and relying on the “Following” tab for updates.
You can also search for a keyword and then follow the “Latest” tweets on that topic. Let’s explain it with an example.
Recently, Sergio Ramos scored a header from an assist by Lionel Messi. If you are a football fan, you would know the ripples this “event” will send across the football fraternity. Both the players captained rival clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively, and had a ‘less-friendly’ on-field relationship before joining PSG in the same year.
Now instead of getting tweets around the “event” up front, like we used to, we had to search for “messi ramos” and tap the “Latest” tab to get real-time information.
How to manage things you see on Twitter
Twitter also allows users to manage what they see on their timeline. In order to have more control of their timeline, users can go to “more” on web, choose “settings and privacy” > “content you see” > tick on “display media that contain sensitive content”.
Go to “Interest” and check mark what you want to see. This section contains “some of the interests matched to you based on your profile, activity, and the topics you follow”.
