Twitter working on news-first timeline for Android users

This feature, however, rather than just surfacing interesting and popular tweets, focuses on news stories from news agencies and organisations.

The feature comes with a prompt that says -- “Catch up on what’s happened while you were away”. (AP)

Micro-blogging site Twitter is testing a new feature on Android that puts news stories at the top of the timeline to help users keep up with what is happening around the world.

"With this update, we're making it easier for people to see the news and stories their followers have been discussing while they've been away right at the top of their timeline," Mashable quoted Wally Gurzynski, Product Manager, Twitter as saying on Tuesday.

The feature comes with a prompt that says -- "Catch up on what's happened while you were away".

Earlier in 2015 and 2016 Twitter released "While you were away" and "Never miss an important tweet" features but they were not to specifically highlight news stories.

This feature, however, rather than just surfacing interesting and popular tweets, focuses on news stories from news agencies and organisations.

This catching-up with the news test feature is in line with the other tests that Twitter is running and are aimed at following specific conversations and newsworthy events easier, the report added.

The feature-test roll-out for iOS users and its final release plans remain unclear as of now.