Another big change that no one asked for is coming to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
X is planning to redesign how content shows up in users’ feeds by removing interaction and engagement buttons from posts. This means that the repost (aka retweet), like, and reply buttons would no longer appear on each individual post on a users’ X timeline.
Along with the removal of the buttons, repost, like, and reply counts will also be removed from each individual post.
Instead of tapping on a button, X wants users to swipe left or right on a post in order to like or reply. X for iOS users can also force touch a post in order to open a menu with more options.
The only viewable metric on the post in the timeline will be view count, which has been moved to the upper right hand corner of the post.
The upcoming X post design change was first discovered by researcher Aaron Perris of MacRumors. X owner Elon Musk has since confirmed it’s coming.
The reaction from most users so far has been negative.
“It’s awesome,” Musk said in a reply to a user who criticized the change in the reply to a video showcasing the redesign. “Just swipe left to like and right to reply.”
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Musk has long wanted to remove repost, like buttons
Since acquiring the company in October 2022, Musk has made quite a few sweeping changes to the platform then-known as Twitter. The most obvious change being the name of the service. Musk dropped “Twitter” for “X” last summer.
The most recent big change to the platform occurred just last month when Musk made most “likes” on the platform private. Previously, users could click the “like count” and see a list of users who liked a post. Now, only the user who published the post could see which users liked it. Third-parties can no longer see who liked what.
Now, with Musk confirming the removal of repost and like buttons from posts, he will institute another change he’s long wanted to make.
“Next, we’ll remove all the action buttons with their superfluous interaction counts from the main timeline,” Musk posted in a subscriber-only post on X in October of last year. “Just view count will show, unless you tap into a post.”
It’s worth noting that during that same month, Musk also had X developers remove headlines from article links shared within posts because he didn’t like how it looked aesthetically. That change was also roundly critiqued by X users.
Less than two months later, X ended up bringing headlines back to posts which included links to articles, albeit with a slightly different design.
Could we see the same thing happen with repost and like buttons if removing them turns out to be disastrous? Seems like it.
In the replies to one of his biggest supporters on X who argued for giving the change a chance, Musk affirmed that they’d change it back if it didn’t work out.
“If it sucks that bad, they will change it back,” the X user said.
“Yeah,” replied Musk.
