Twitter’s Reverse-Chronological Timeline Toggle Is Rolling Out on iOS Today ⇥ theverge.com

Casey Newton, the Verge:

Twitter began ranking the timeline almost four years ago. It was an effort to increase usage at a time when Facebook had pulled dramatically ahead of Twitter, raising doubts about the company’s future and setting it on a course to reinvent itself. Many users griped about the change, even though Twitter has always allowed users to switch back to the reverse-chronological feed temporarily.

The latest incarnation of the original Twitter feed can be accessed by tapping the cluster of small stars — the company calls it the “sparkle” and now so shall we all, forever — and switching to see the latest tweets. Over time, the company will learn your behavior. If you routinely switch to the latest tweets, Twitter will default you to them. This marks a change from the past, when the app would switch you back to the ranked timeline at unpredictable intervals.

This is unnecessarily complicated, especially when compared to the current behaviour. All anyone wants who uses the reverse-chronological timeline is to be able to set that as their preferred — and only — view. The app doesn’t need to “learn” a user’s preference over time. It just needs one setting. It shouldn’t be this difficult.