Do I always see all the tweets of people I'm following on Twitter?

Just a idle curiosity here, but I've wondered if at certain times I'm not seeing all the tweets by the people I follow.

A couple of things have led me to this conclusion:

1. At the moment I'm on pretty much all day (some days) and I would have thought that with the "N new tweets" messages and the occasional reload I'd see everything, but sometimes I see a tweet which is clearly a reply to something someone else posted earlier when I don't remember seeing it.

2. There are some people I hardly see any tweets from at all, yet when I check their profiles they have recent activity.

I'll freely admit that I can't remember all the tweets I see during a day, but I'm not following that many active people so I'm fairly likely to remember if X or Y posted.

I should add that I use the web interface (rather than a desktop app or any other feed) to view Twitter and I'm using Google Chrome on Windows-XP (just in case it makes a difference).

From web app ChrisF

• I would say yes you do receive them all.

  Certain replies unless you follow both users are not able to be seen.

  Cases for replies and mentions :

  1. Your account is protected mentions sent to people who aren't following you will not be seen.
  2. You will only see replies in your home time line if you are following both the sender and recipient of the tweet
  3. You will see mentions not replies in your timeline as long as you are following the sender

  Even during the heaviest traffic times in World Cup I was able to see all the user tweets. The home timeline only receives 20 tweets without the refresh using the more button or the "N new tweets" message. That way it might seem to someone that they are not receiving all the tweets.

  For example if X users > 20 posted at 2:30 pm during a World Cup game , it would appear to you that person Y's tweet is missing. It is there , it is just that the timeline only displays 20.

  To verify this , you can test with the following tabs open on your browser.

  • http://twitter.com/home
  • http://snapbird.org/ (Search your friends' tweets and blank for the search term)
  • http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/home_timeline.xml (Inspect in web developer mode using your firefox or chrome browser)

  Looking at these three will tell you that you are in fact getting all your tweets.

  Edit

  If you inspect a user's timeline and are sure that it does not match up with the three above then I would suggest to check http://status.twitter.com/ to see the current status of any errors that are occurring site-wide.

  If you think it is more localized you can submit a Twicket : http://help.twitter.com/requests/new

  Think your Twicket is taking too long shoot a mention to @delbius the lead on Twitter's Trust and Safety team.

  ChrisF : I should have added that I know I don't see @ replies to people I'm not following myself.

  phwd : Okay I updated for error status updates there was actually some missing replies earlier this month http://status.twitter.com/post/773257081/missing-replies

  tnorthcutt : "Certain replies unless you follow both users are not able to be seen." What determines when this will occur?

  phwd : Replies and Mentions are mixed alot : Cases : **1** Your account is protected mentions sent to people who aren't following you will not be seen. **2** You will only see replies in your home time line if you are following both the sender and recipient of the tweet **3** You will see mentions not replies in your timeline as long as you are following the sender
  From phwd