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.

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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.