Twitter Is Finally Explaining Its Suggested Tweets Strategy

Twitter’s finally opening up about its new algorithm, which shows users content they aren’t asking for.

In August, Twitter started surfacing tweets to users from people they didn’t follow with the hope of introducing them to new content. Now Twitter says this strategy is here for the long haul, according to a blog post.

When Twitter first started testing these suggested tweets a few months ago, it didn’t explain the change very well to users, most of whom were confused and even angry when they started seeing content in their stream from people they didn’t follow. Twitter often experiments with new features without adding much of an explanation early on.

Thursday’s blog post is Twitter’s attempt to quell those concerns and offer some insight into the company’s strategy.

In fact, Twitter’s attempt at showing new content to users has actually expanded. The social network quietly unveiled a feature Wednesday for new users that automatically shows suggested tweets when their timeline has nothing new from the people they follow. (A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the feature to Re/code.) It’s a small yet important way to keep new users interested, and, hopefully for Twitter’s sake, hooked for the long haul.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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