Microblogging company confirms it is conducting ‘experiment’ whereby posts no longer appear with the most recent at the top

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Twitter has confirmed on Tuesday it is testing a new format for tweets that sorts them by presumed relevance, rather than in reverse chronological order.

Twitter is replacing favourites with likes – but does anyone heart it? Read more

“Yes, this is an experiment. We’re continuing to explore ways to surface the best content for people using Twitter,” spokeswoman Liina Potter said in an emailed statement.

The company, facing slowing user growth, has been experimenting under newly appointed chief executive Jack Dorsey to make its website more engaging.

“You’ll see us continue to question our reverse chronological timeline and all the work it takes to build one by finding and following accounts,” Dorsey said during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call in July.

However some among the 320 million users of Twitter seemed to disagree.

“I use @Twitter to see what happens and when. Showing posts out of order is one of the things I hate the most about Facebook. Please don’t,” a user going by the name Owen Pike tweeted.

Lilybop (@lilybop2010) UGH! @Twitter is testing a "new timeline format where tweets are sorted by relevance instead of in reverse chronological order".

In 2012 Facebook changed its format to the Timeline, a stream that shows events, posts and images by what it says is relevance to the user, rather than the most recent at the top.

Last month Twitter replaced its star-shaped “favourite” icon with a heart-shaped icon called “like”.