X Changes the Way Articles Are Displayed
If you use the X app on iPhone, chances are all the links you open today will look different than they did yesterday. This is because the platform is trying to increase engagement with posts with links by keeping the “Like,” “Comment,” “Repost,” “Favorite,” and “Share” buttons active in the new footer, even if you navigate to a different article.
When you click a link in X, it doesn’t take you out of the app, but instead uses a specialized version of Chrome (on Android) or Safari (on iPhone) to open the article in X. This hasn’t changed. However, on iPhone, you’ll still see interactive elements at the bottom of the page with buttons you can tap to directly interact with X while reading. Furthermore, when you first click a link or scroll up, you’ll even see a portion of the original social media post that led you there above these buttons. These elements will persist even if you click another link in the article you’re reading.
This small change, though it may seem a bit overwhelming, points to a potential solution to a serious problem. According to Nikita Bira, Head of Product at X, the idea is to increase traffic to linked posts by making it easier for users to engage with them even after clicking the link.
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There has been much debate about X posts with links receiving less traffic than those without, especially since the platform was acquired by its current owner, Elon Musk. While the site hasn’t directly acknowledged this, SEO experts have recently begun warning users to avoid including links in their traffic , claiming that X is now de-prioritizing posts with links because they distract users from their feeds. Musk has also made comments that some accuse of implying this.
However, Beer refuted this during the unveiling of the new interface for opening links on iOS , stating instead that “links aren’t rowdy,” and implying that the lack of interactive timeline elements on them simply naturally leads to lower engagement, and the new change attempts to fix that.
For example, the old way of opening links could potentially lead you away from the site and prevent you from responding to the original post on social media or sharing it with your audience. Beer noted that this led to a decrease in the reach of posts, and the new footer should help them “get a better signal.”
But at the same time, it’s clear that the new approach has benefits for X, too, as it gives users easier ways to navigate from external articles into their feeds, where they can engage with other posts and see ads.
But whether X is manually deprioritizing posts with links or the motivations behind this change are selfish, the very fact that it’s making these changes means the platform may finally be making an effort to make links in posts more effective. This could be a huge boon for users like me, who have historically relied on X (and Twitter before it) to drive traffic to their posts. Whatever the reason, fixing this bug would be beneficial for those who rely on it.
However, there’s a chance you won’t see the new interface at all, and even if you do, you won’t like it. Luckily, if that’s you, you have a choice.
X Links only looks different on iPhone for now.
In the post announcing this change, Beer mentioned that the “new link interface” is in testing and is currently only available on iOS. This means that while I currently see it in posts opened on my iPhone 15 Pro, you may not. On my Pixel 10, I still see the old interface, and even on iPhone, it doesn’t seem to be affecting all users. For example, my husband can’t see the footer on his iPhone 17 Pro.
This is great news if you don’t like the look of the new footer. However, if you’d like to try it out, I unfortunately don’t have much advice yet. It seems only a few users have access to it right now.
However, if you see the new footer but prefer not to see it, there are two steps you can take to get rid of it.
How to open X-links without a new footer
The change to how X links work occurs on the server side, so downgrading the app or not updating won’t fix the issue. To remove the footer from links opened in X, first open the link and then click the button with three dots just above the footer on the right.
Next, you have two options. First, to open the page with unchanged formatting but without the footer, click “Open in Browser.” This will open the link in your default browser, but will also redirect you to that browser’s app. This means you’ll have to return to app X if you want to continue scrolling after reading.
To stay in the X app, you can use Safari’s Reader mode, which is available even if Chrome or another app is your default browser. In the same three-dot menu, simply tap “Show Reader,” and you’ll see a regular version of the link without all the website formatting, including the new X app footer, without having to switch to a new app. To return to the regular view, simply tap the X button in the upper left corner. Then, to return to the X timeline, either grab the footer and scroll up, or tap the X button just above the footer on the left.