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Twitter’s ‘while you were away’ feature lands for Android users

twitters while you were away feature lands for android users twitter recap
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Twitter this week rolled out its ‘while you were away’ feature for Android users. The feature landed on iOS devices almost a month to the day.

If you’re always checking your timeline, it’s unlikely you’ll notice Twitter’s latest tweak, but for those who open the app less frequently, it’s a safe there’ll be a selection of missed tweets waiting for you from hereon in.

Twitter says the aim of the recap feature is to “help you keep up – or catch up – with your world” by surfacing “a few of the best tweets you probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise.”

So that you know you’re looking at older messages, Twitter’s surfaced tweets appear at the top of your timeline under the heading, “While you were away,” as shown in the image above.

The fact that it’s made it to Android presumably means there was no significant adverse reaction from iOS users toward the new feature.

However, not everyone is happy having their timelines tampered with, as shown by the response to Twitter’s Android announcement. One user said the feature “sucks,” another sarcastically praises the company for putting “more unwanted crap in our feeds,” and yet another laments, “Slowly but surely we’re losing control of our timelines.”

If you’re using Twitter on an iOS device, have you noticed the recap feature yet? Have the inserted tweets been of any interest, or do you find the timeline tampering annoying? Let us know in the comments below.

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