How to make your Twitter Timeline Chronological
How to get a Chronological Twitter Timeline
As you probably know, Instagram changed their algorithm a year or so ago so that we were shown pictures not in the order they were posted, but in some mystical order that Instagram’s algorithm decided for you. People hate it, and rightly so. Not only does it impact what you see, but also who sees you.
Twitter kind of went down the route of algorithm based timelines, but appeared to give you the option to keep your chronological timeline. Note the word appeared. If you go into your settings you can uncheck the ‘show the best Tweets first’ options and you should see your tweets as they appear.
I was under the impression that my Twitter timeline was already chronological, I saw my follower’s tweets in the the order they were tweeted with their retweets interspersed. Until I came across a Tweet saying they’d found a tool which allowed them to see Tweets in the right order, despite Twitter’s algorithm’s change.
I literally rolled my eyes.
I thought to myself, GAH, don’t people know about unticking show best Tweets first?
Out of curiosity, I tried the tool out.
My mind was blown. I hadn’t realised quite how much of my feed was taken up with Retweets and tweets people have liked until then. Most of the tweets I was seeing were from hours ago, and I hadn’t noticed?!
Standard Twitter Timeline with ‘show the best tweets first’ unchecked
Chronological Twitter Timeline
Also notice the amount of promoted posts?! How had I been okay with this?
Now, the reason I haven’t linked the Tweet here is because the ‘tool’ itself is unnessasary and also detracts from the Twitter User Experience. It links to an external site, which just isn’t great if you use Twitter in the app. Instead I’m going to show you the easy way to view your Twitter Timeline Chronologically.
How to Actually Make your Twitter Timeline Chronological
So it’s actually pretty easy to make your Twitter timeline chronological whilst in the app. All you need to do is:
- Paste filter:follows -filter:replies into your search
- Select ‘Latest’
That’s it! If you also want Retweets in there just put filter:follows -filter:replies include:nativeretweets instead!
Now it’s chronological!
Okay so I thought mine was chronological but it wasn’t!
Go to your search and put the following in and it shows you your chronological timeline
filter:follows -filter:replies https://t.co/gT0uZsLWTG
— Jenn 📚✨🌖🚀 (@JennieLy) September 12, 2018
Why I don’t always make my Twitter Timeline Chronological
Even though I now know how to do it – I don’t always use this. Why? Because I like being exposed to new content. Seeing what friends have liked and their retweets shows me new people and things I wouldn’t have ordinarily seen. So, I’m going to be using a bit of both, and I advise you to do the same.
I hope you found this helpful! Let me know your thoughts down below.
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22 Comments
I had no idea that Twitter wasn’t chronological! Thanks for much for the information! 🙂
You’re so welcome!
You’re an actual lifesaver! I had noticed lately that my timeline wasn’t chronological anymore but had no idea how to fix it until now.
Megan // https://pixieskiesblog.wordpress.com/
Yey I’m glad I could help
My timeline looks so empty without everything else thrown in there – it’s sad how quickly Twitter gets you used to seeing everything else thrown in there too. But I’ll make sure to remember to use this hack more often to make sure I actually see what the people I follow tweet! Thank you for sharing this in a post and making it easier to find again this way!
You’re so welcome! And I agree. I still use my normal feed and then use this to see what I’ve missed. I think they work best together
Hallo, Hallo Jenn!
I must admit – when I started seeing you were talking about Twitter recently, I was wondering if what I do for Admin purposes would run close to what your doing – ironically, we *think!* a lot alike and do things in similar fashions – however, I hadn’t come across this way of doing organic and native searches on Twitter! I did know about that box – as I noticed my own feeds were acting wonky approx 2 years ago? Then, somehow the settings I switched were switched back during one of the upgrades and of course, that took me a bit longer to recognise (had a lot going on personally) — so this really is like my ‘next step!’
I also regularly check my stats for my feeds – which tweets gain the most traction, time of day, etc – I worked it out I have several different spots during the day which make the most impact given which time zone / country / region I’m talking to at any given moment of time – for the UK / Euro region especially if I’m posting / talking between 2a to 5a I get the most traction whereas stateside if I’m posting anywhere from 8a to 5p I’m golden. Now after 5p til midnight, I get another group who likes to check my feeds – so really, I don’t have a lot of dead space…
I never worried really about time delays with my feeds – I follow people who quite literally live anywhere in the world – so on any given hour, I’m slightly behind already, so I just pick up from whence I left off either the previous day or wherever they were that day I looked at their feeds, etc!! This new tool of code you’ve given me really was lovely as it’s more ‘real time’ in my timeline than I even get to experience if I simply go through my Lists which get bogged down a bit by likes/RTs which is the one downfall to using those! 🙁 Sometimes I just use those to new tab into someone I’m following’s feed to see what their talking about and updating about… (smiles)
Overall… like you, I love variety and I love trying to see as much as I can whenever I can – so for me, like you, the dual way of reading our feeds is what will be working the best!! Thanks for sharing!!!
You’re welcome! I look at my stats too but I don’t think I do as religiously as you do aha. I know my key times for posting when the most people are online and kind of stick to that?
yessi use this method already and have it bookmarked on my pc.
its handy to see them both as the “””regular””” timeline will help me see things i might otherwise miss.
im glad you chose to share this because it really is v helpful
It is so helpful! I just literally had no clue it wasn’t already chronological!
Definitely going to try this out! Thanks for the tip.
You’re welcome!
[…] Jenn @ Jenniely saved my Twitter feed and shows exactly what you have to do to get that timeline in … […]
Thanks for posting this! I was wondering how I could get a more chronological order of tweets.
You’re welcome!
Very detailed and useful!
I’m a huge fan of chronological tweets, but I do like the idea of being exposed to new content as well! great post!
Oh my god this is so freaking helpful!!! I didn’t know about either of these techniques, thank you so much 😍
You are so welcome!
Thank you for this. It is so frustrating when I am not seeing people’s posts because of the algorithm.
I saw you post this on Twitter and found it so helpful! thank you!!
[…] How to Get a Chronological Twitter Timeline — find out how to see your Twitter Timeline in Chronological order! I didn’t think this was still possible, but it is! I just wish I could have this on my regular feed. […]