Twitter currently lets you customize your main timeline by letting you choose between viewing others’ tweets in your feed chronologically (Latest Tweets) or the Home view (an algorithm-driven selection of tweets based on what Twitter thinks will be relevant to you).
This week, Twitter has announced that it is testing similar viewing options for timelines in the Twitter Communities you’ve joined.
a new way to view your Communities timeline: sort Tweets by For you (most relevant to you) or Latest (most recent)—the choice is yours!
we’re testing this on iOS, Android, and web to see if it improves your Communities experience 🤞 let us know what you think pic.twitter.com/ygWXfBxbQf
— Twitter Communities (@HiCommunities) June 1, 2022
On Wednesday, the official Twitter Communities Twitter account announced the testing of the new Communities feature via a tweet. In the tweet, the feature is described as offering two timeline views: One that sorts tweets in a given Community by relevance to you (For You) or one that sorts tweets by date/how recently they were posted (Latest). Furthermore, the feature is being tested on the Android and iOS mobile apps and on the web.
The tweet also included two screenshots of the Communities’ timeline view feature. The first screenshot shows a Twitter Community with what appears to be a new icon in the top right corner of the timeline. The icon looks like two toggles on top of each other. The second screenshot shows what happens when you select the new icon: A menu pops up with the two timeline viewing options: For You and Latest.
In an emailed statement to Digital Trends, Twitter offered a few more details about its testing of the Communities timeline feature. The test is currently limited to “a group of people” for now. And so, if you don’t see it yet, you’re likely not part of this initial test. If you are part of the test, it’s important to know that the viewing option is set for each individual Community, so you can pick and choose which Communities you’ve joined shows you which timeline view.
And once you choose a view, that setting will remain as the “new default every time they visit that Community.” That is to say, until you decide to change the view. You can still change this setting “at any given moment.”
If you’re not familiar, Twitter Communities are a fairly new addition to Twitter’s micro-blogging platform. They are communities of Twitter users built around shared interests like food or dogs or fashion. Each community features a timeline of tweets related to the main topic of the Community. These tweets are posted by members of a given community. Twitter Communities often have stated rules members must abide by and have members that are designated admins and moderators. If you don’t see the option for Communities in the app or on the web, it’s because, at this time as far as we know, you have to join a Community first in order for the option to appear. Once you join a Community, the Communities tab will appear on the left side of your screen on the web app, for example.