Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) has ignited the ire of users by turning their favorites into retweets. In the past, users were able to easily save content by just clicking on the star to make it a favorite. Now, however, Twitter is apparently running an experiment by automatically retweeting users’ favorites. Many Twitter users are angry because of how cluttered their Twitter Timelines are now.
Twitters users complain on Twitter… about Twitter
Many users first began noticing the retweets of their favorites this morning. The micro-blogging platform has been under pressure to improve engagement, and management probably thought more retweets would equal higher engagement. However, it seems as if the opposite is true, as users have been posting complaints about the experiment all over the site.
Favorites are supposed to allow users to easily save items or perhaps simply say thank you for a message from another user. Clicking to make something a favorite now essentially becomes the same thing as retweeting, thus defeating the purpose of having both features.
The company has said in the past that it experiments with features and advertising products on a regular basis. The micro-blogging platform said it experiments with “small groups” of its users before deciding whether to roll a feature or ad product out to the broader user base. If today’s anger is anything to go by, it seems unlikely that Twitter will roll this new use of favorites out to the rest of its users. If the company does, it could stand to lose a lot of users rather than gain new ones, as investors have been pressuring it to do.
Cluttered Twitter Timelines
The Next Web first noticed the experiment some weeks ago, although the website states that the experiment seems to have widened to cover more users. There are two new things that are showing up in affected users Timelines. They’re now seeing tweets of items the people they follow have favorite. They’re also receiving notifications when other users follow a new user.
Most of Twitter’s experiments haven’t had a big effect, with many of them going by virtually unnoticeable. However, this time around, the micro-blogging platform seems to have struck a nerve with users. In fact, almost no one seems to have anything good to say about the new feature.
