Twitter adds new ‘while you were away’ recaps to iOS app

Twitter this evening has announced in a blog post that it is rolling out a new “While you were away” recap feature to its mobile apps. Starting today on iOS and “soon” on Twitter.com and Android, a “While you were away” banner will appear in your feed, showing you the top tweets that you missed since you last opened the app. The company initially announced plans for a feature like this in November.

Twitter says that the tweets it shows are determined by engagement, as well as other factors. Users who spend a lot of time in the Twitter app already won’t see this new banner as often as those who only open the app every now and then.

In the blog post, Twitter notes that it does not want to compromise the “real-time nature” of the service, which is why it will only make a “few improvements to the home timeline.” The company’s end goal is to help users “keep up” with their world, according to the post.

The new recaps, signaled by a “While you were away” heading, will appear for all iOS Twitter users today and for Twitter.com and Android users soon.