Finally, Twitter launches archives to show you your tweets from the day you signed up

Wonder what your first tweet was? Now, you can finally find out.

Twitter announced this morning it is finally making historical data available to end users.

Previously, this kind of information had only been accessible to data-wranglers who paid big bucks to companies like Gnip. In fact, Gnip’s historical Twitter search just launched in September 2012 — a feature it was only able to introduce due to a close, longstanding partnership with Twitter.

Now that the same ability (for our own tweets, at least) is available to us common folk, we can now download all our Twitter updates, including retweets, starting with our very first message on the service. Once you’ve downloaded the archive, you can browse through your tweets chronologically by month; you can also choose to search for specific keywords, hashtags, or usernames. And yes, you can still retweet and favorite your old gems just as you’d be able to with more recent content.

To get your archive, go to Twitter and click on your settings. Scroll to the bottom, where you’ll see an option to request your Twitter archive. Check that little box, and Twitter will email you with more details on how to get your data and when it will be ready for download. Then sit back, twiddle your thumbs, and wait for a potentially cringe-worthy stroll down memory lane.