Twitter Communities, which began last year as a private, interest-based networking tool, will soon have their own algorithmic-based timelines, similar to Twitter's Home timeline, where the most relevant and engaging conversations will be displayed. On Wednesday, the firm said that it would begin testing this feature in Communities on iOS, Android, and the web, with a small sample of users.
The algorithmic-based timeline will be known as "For You" in this test, while the chronological timeline will be known as "Latest." Users will be able to toggle between the two options, and whichever option you choose for a given Community will become the default every time you return to that group, according to Twitter.
The tool, according to the business, will let users keep up with the most popular chats in Communities with a lot of activity. It then gave instances of communities such as a Harry Styles fan group, a food community, and the Xbox Community.
However, in our experience across over 20 Communities, the problem isn't keeping up with all of the talks going on; rather, the problem is a lack of conversation.
However, these new timeline settings may be able to help with that as well, as any tweets with high engagement may be pushed to the front of the stream. This may assist in making a quieter Community appear more lively.
The goal of Twitter Communities was to create a community within Twitter's wider, public social network where individuals could connect with others who shared their interests. In actuality, Communities and Topics, another Twitter tool that helps individuals find the debate around a certain subject by tailoring their feed with tweets, events, and even ads linked to the Topics they follow, have a lot in common. In other words, if all you want to do is listen in on a talk about Apple or startups, you can just follow that Topic.
Despite the fact that Communities could allow users to connect more directly with people who regularly write about a specific issue, Twitter chose to implement the feature in an unusual, semi-public way. In Communities, your tweets are public, but only other community members can respond. Users may not feel comfortable fanning out about their specific interests in public, so this design choice may limit participation. Because your main Twitter identity is linked to your Community tweets, you still feel as vulnerable as if you were publishing to the global, public stream.
If you're in the test group, you'll be able to pick how you want to view your Community timelines via a new setting in the upper right-hand corner of each Community page, similar to how you can choose how you want to read your main Twitter Home timeline, Twitter explains.
Other changes to Communities include the ability for mods and admins to pin their Community Tweets (web), the addition of communities search (web and iOS), mod/admin member removal (web and Android), and member search (web and Android) (across all platforms).
As the feature is further developed, Twitter says more features will be added to Communities in the coming months — a statement that appears to contradict a recent Bloomberg report that says work on consumer-facing features like Spaces, Communities, and newsletters is being scaled back as part of a broader restructuring.
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