Twitter’s latest feature tries to identify your BFF

Twitter thinks it has identified your BFF. The company is currently testing a new feature that will highlight the tweets from a select, single account that Twitter thinks you’ll want to see. Yes: a single person’s tweets will get their own special spot on your timeline. The feature is similar to Twitter’s “In Case You Missed It…” which rounds up the tweets from those accounts you more regularly engage with, or others Twitter thinks you might like.

And like “In Case You Missed It…”, you can dismiss this new “BFF” module when it appears. This will indicate to Twitter that you want to see this feature less often.

Twitter confirmed the test is underway for select users on iOS, Android, and the web.

The account it chooses to show you is based on a number of signals – like how often you engage with the account in question. Repeat engagement is also used to determine whether or not Twitter shows you the module at all.

Originally just a chronologically-ordered feed of information, Twitter has taken steps over the years to make its service more approachable, and it’s always testing out new ways to boost tweets, likes, and retweets.

As a part of these efforts, Twitter has tried to distance itself from the chronological timeline, to one that’s more algorithmically determined. The company has not gone as far as Facebook in completely re-ordering the content it displays. Instead, it pushes tweets it thinks you wouldn’t want to miss up to the top of the screen, to be shown when you return to its app after being away.

This is where you’ll find the new module, as well, if you’ve been opted in.

It’s unclear how well Twitter has correctly figured out whose tweets you want to see the most, however.

But those who are in the experiment now seem to find it funny that Twitter is pointing them to the tweets from a single individual.

Jokes one Twitter user, “…I don’t think I like anybody enough to justify this new feature you’re trying.”

https://twitter.com/Errorfied/status/822029306687848448