Twitter says its ‘enhanced timeline’ is working: About 2% of users opt out

Despite the momentary backlash, Twitter says its recent timeline algorithm changes have boosted “Tweets, Retweets, replies, and likes” on the service, and hardly anyone’s opted out — “less than 2 percent” of users, said CEO Jack Dorsey.

While the opt-out figure is quite low — lower than I’d expected, to be sure — we can’t suddenly rule that the change was an absolute success; Twitter declined to share any specific engagement figures, some users may have not even noticed the change, while others may not know they’re able to opt out at all.

It’s hard to draw a definitive conclusion here, yet Twitter was optimistic about it in its first-quarter earnings release today, calling it “a sign that it improves people’s experience.”

Here’s Twitter’s full quote:

The enhanced timeline we launched this quarter is a great step forward, improving both speed and relevance. For users with the new timeline, we’ve seen increases in Tweets, Retweets, replies, and likes, a sign that it improves people’s experience on Twitter. Although people can still opt out if they wish, the opt-out rate is extremely low (about 2%).

How nice!

For more on Twitter’s first quarter, read this.

Update 2:05 p.m. PT: CEO Jack Dorsey later clarified further that “less than two percent” have opted out.