A tremendously useful feature in Tweetbot for iPhone and iPad (affiliate link) is the ability to quickly filter your timeline to focus on specific types of tweets or media, temporarily exclude keywords, and hunt down something recent you’d like to recover.
Note that timeline filters are a separate feature from muting. Mute is a way to keep tweets containing keywords and hashtags out of your timeline on a more long-term basis, spanning from a full day to forever.
To tinker with Tweetbot’s filters, scroll to the top of your timeline. The search box there is a super quick way to search for a keyword, but tap the filter icon just to the right. This is where you can try some of Tweetbot’s built-in filters like “media” and “links,” which will instantly change your timeline to show only those types of tweets.
There is a handful of useful criteria with which to start creating your own filters (see this post’s gallery), which are really useful when you need to quickly sift through all the signal and noise. When you activate a filter, a notice appears at the top of your timeline to remind you that you’re viewing only one particular slice of your timeline. To switch back to tweets from everyone you follow, simply tap the (X) on the filter banner.
For now, keep in mind that timeline filters do not sync between devices. Hopefully, the Tapbots folks will add this in a future update.