Twitter can be an intimidating place for newcomers. The site's timeline is only as good as the content that appears inside it, and until you start following profiles, it's pretty spartan. But the social network knows it has a problem, and it's trying to do something about it.

Twitter already makes recommendations during the setup process that points us towards friends along with popular sources of news and entertainment. Now, according to a report by The New York Times, the site is testing out a new "Instant Timeline" feature that automatically populates a new user's feed until they've figured out how to fill it up themselves. The content then gradually disappears as users start following profiles and seeing their timeline filled with tweets from those accounts.

Twitter announced the instant timeline in response to its slowing growth rate during the fall of last year. The social network views the difficulty users face when signing up as an impediment to further adoption.

The feature reportedly entered public testing last week and is currently being introduced to a small percentage of new users signing up on Android devices. If everything goes well, we will likely see this presented as part of the standard sign-up experience in a matter of months.