CALIFORNIA: Twitter officially launched its new ‘while you were way’ feature, designed to provide users with a recap of ‘important’ tweets they might have missed while away from the service.
Twitter product manager Paul Rosania promised the new recap feature will “surface a few of the best tweets users probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise, determined by engagement and other factors.”
If users are the type who can’t go more than a few minutes without checking their Twitter timeline, they’ll notice the feature less. However, if users can go several hours or longer without posting a tweet or catching up on their followers’ updates, they’ll likely notice it more.
Rosania said the idea is to “help users keep up – or catch up – with their world….without compromising the real-time nature of Twitter.”
No doubt the company will be looking closely at the reaction of users to the new feature. Some will likely take unkindly to having their timeline tampered with, though for occasional users who follow a lot of people, it could well prove a popular addition to the service. Much will depend on the effectiveness of the algorithm surfacing the tweets.
Recaps are clearly marked with a “while you were away” heading, and iOS users who haven’t opened the app for a while should start seeing the feature now. Android users will have to wait a little longer, though Rosania promises it’s coming to the platform “soon.”
