Say hello to Twitter archives: users can now download and explore their tweets

It seems Twitter has decided to make sure you never lose a tweet. The microblog has introduced Twitter archive, a function that allows users to download their old tweets, right from their very first one.

“We know lots of you would like to explore your Twitter past,” said the site. “… we’re introducing the ability to download your Twitter archive, so you’ll get all your tweets (including retweets) going back to the beginning.”

Users can go into their settings menu and scroll down to the bottom to check for the option to request their archive. Once you see this button, click and Twitter will send you an email with instructions on how to access your archive when it’s ready for you to download. Easy peasy.

Once that is done, you will be able to explore your past through Twitter. You can view your tweets by month, or search through the archive to find tweets with certain words, phrases, hashtags or @usernames.

“You can even engage with your old tweets just as you would with current ones,” says the microblog.

According to the Silicon Valley company, the project was first built during one of its quarterly Hack Weeks.

“Since then, we’ve done the engineering work necessary to make it available to Twitter users. We look forward to seeing the old tweets you uncover. As you go through all of your tweets, share your favourites using #TwitterArchive.”

The company has only rolled out the function to a few English speaking accounts but says the rest of the Twitterverse should be able to access their archives in the near future.

“Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll make it available to all users around the world, for all the languages we offer. We’re really excited to bring this feature to everyone, and we appreciate your patience as we work to do so.”