Twitter says it's working on fixing that bug that makes tweets disappear while you're reading them

Twitter (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Twitter says that it is working on a bug that caused some tweets to disappear.
Users have been complaining that tweets sometimes disappear from their timeline for years.
Twitter says it's rolling out fixes over the next two months.

Twitter has announced that it is working to fix a bug that caused tweets to disappear from a user's timeline even while they were reading them. According to a Twitter thread, the company is hoping to have the fix in place over the next couple of months.

The issue, as Twitter explains, was simple — new tweets would cause existing ones to move through the timeline, even when they were still being read. The issue is caused by the way the timeline automatically refreshes.

The background: a Tweet would move up the timeline as replies were added to the ongoing convo. Since some convos can evolve quickly, this made it so you didn't see the same Tweet repeated in the TL.

Now, a fix is coming.

Let’s talk about Tweets disappearing from view mid-read when the timeline seems to auto-refresh. We know it’s a frustrating experience, so we’re working on changing it.

Over the next two months, we’ll be rolling out updates to the way we show you Tweets so they don't disappear.Let’s talk about Tweets disappearing from view mid-read when the timeline seems to auto-refresh. We know it’s a frustrating experience, so we’re working on changing it.

Over the next two months, we’ll be rolling out updates to the way we show you Tweets so they don't disappear.— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 22, 2021 September 22, 2021

These changes will only impact the official Twitter app, although that was also the only app that had the issue that needed to be fixed. If you've been battling with this issue for years, rejoice — your nightmare is almost over.

Twitter continues to tweak its official app and while it still isn't the best iPhone app for power users, it's getting better all the time. Now just give us some sort of timeline sync across devices and things will really be looking up!

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.