Twitter officially debuts 'while you were away' feature for iOS app

Twitter is officially adding a feature designed to recap tweets you may have missed while not using its app.

The feature means that instead of showing just a chronological list of most recent tweets, the iOS app's feed will also display the top tweets since the last time the app was opened, based on an algorithm that looks at engagement and other user habits. "While you were away" was first announced in November of last year and initially rolled out earlier this month.

See also: Twitter's 'while you were away' recap is rolling out to more smartphones

The goal is to dig up the top tweets that would have otherwise been lost among the flood of new posts, according to the company announcement. The feature is not unlike Facebook's algorithm-driven news feed that curates posts based on user preferences, though Twitter Vice President Kevin Weil denies the comparison. He told the New York Times that Twitter's feed will still focus more on real-time experiences, whereas Facebook's generally ignores chronology Read more...

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