Twitter is giving back just in time for Christmas. After a year of promising users access to their entire tweet history, the social network giant has finally delivered the goods.
Users previously only had access to their last 3,200 tweets, a backlog that just wasn’t enough for die-hard tweeters. Wired reports that because of demand Twitter is now giving users the ability to download every tweet they’ve ever written.
Twitter’s official statement about the new downloadable history feature credits users for the idea:
“It’s no secret: You make Twitter what it is. And if you tweet, you may have found yourself wanting to go back in time and explore your past Tweets. Maybe you wanted to recall your reaction to the 2008 election, reminisce on what you said to your partner on your 10th anniversary, or just see your first few Tweets. We know lots of you would like to explore your Twitter past.”
After a user downloads their Twitter history it can be opened in their web browser and will appear in a timeline organized by date. A search feature is also included for any user who knows exactly what 140 character statement they want to re-visit.
For those tweeters that want to dig deeper into their Twitter past, the social media company has included archives with every tweet formatted in CSV and JSON. CSV is a format openable in any spreadsheet application, while JSON allows developers to retrieve their tweets in their original v1.1 Twitter API.
For anyone not quite sure what to make of the move here is a quick video about what Twitter would look like if created in the 1980s to make you smile:
Are you happy that Twitter has given you the ability to download your entire Twitter history?
