X is changing how it handles links to try and keep you in the app

X is testing a change to the way it handles links on iOS so that the buttons to like, reply, and repost will always be visible. Normally, when you click a link on X the page opens up and completely covers the original post. Apparently, this leads to fewer people clicking like or otherwise engaging with the content.

A good chunk of people probably just don’t return to Twitter at all after following an external link. So the company is collapsing the original post to the bottom, instead of letting the web browser take over the whole screen, and pushing further towards Elon Musk’s vision of X as an “everything app” that you never have to leave.

It’s a common complaint that posts with links on X don’t perform well. The post announcing this new feature seems to suggest that the reason is because of the way the interface leads you away from X, and thus lowers engagement.

Elon also said in a post on X that there would be changes to how the recommendation system works, which could result in increased reach for posts with links. He claims that the company is four to six weeks away from “deletion of all heuristics,” meaning likes and replies will have less of an impact. Instead, he says that, “Grok will literally read every post and watch every video (100M+ per day) to match users with content they’re most likely to find interesting.”

The shift to an AI-based understanding of the actual content of a post, instead of a more rules-based algorithm, has been a clear goal for X for some time. These changes could lead to increased reach even for accounts with very few followers.