On Twitter’s blog, Senior Engineering Manager Mike Jahr announced a new Twitter feature. It is billed as a feature that “helps you catch up on the best Tweets from people you follow.” Using an algorithm, Twitter will determine which tweets it thinks you will find most interesting since your last visit or ‘while you were away.’ Those tweets will appear first in your timeline, under a ‘While You Were Away’ banner, in reverse chronological order followed by those deemed as not being ‘interesting’, again listed in reverse chronological order.
The good news is that it appears this feature won’t be automatically enabled. You will need to turn it on in ‘Settings’. Thanks, Twitter. I hate to have new features thrust upon me without even asking if I want them.
Twitter’s support page regarding your timeline definitely gives you the impression that it has been rolled out already. However, at the time of writing this article, I don’t see it in my Settings as yet.
UPDATE (02/15/2016): I now have the option to turn this feature on. In Settings, in the Content section, I now see:
