With X adding more users (at least based on its latest EU performance data), the platform is now looking to maximize some of its core elements, in order to move closer to Elon Musk’s “everything app” vision, by rolling out several AI-powered updates, expanding its chat tools, and more.
X owner Elon Musk discussed the coming changes to X in two interviews last week, one with Joe Rogan, and the other on The All-In Podcast, hinting at some of the updates that the X team is looking to roll out in the near future.
First off, X is looking to add a curated following tab, which will better highlight the top posts from accounts that you follow in the app.
As explained by Musk:
“Something we're going to be adding is the ability to have a curated following tab, because the problem is if you follow some people, and they're maybe a little more prolific than others, that [then] makes the ‘Following’ tab hard to use. So we're going to add an option where you can have the ‘Following’ tab be curated. So Grok will say: ‘What are the most interesting things posted by your friends?’ And then we'll show you that in the ‘Following’ tab.”
So like the Facebook News Feed that people have complained about for years, but in X form. Which seems not-so-great?
I don’t know, I can see the logic, in that if you follow a lot of people, then you may miss out on good stuff, because you can’t possibly sift through it all, and catch up on every update, every day. That’s literally the same logic that Meta has used to justify its Facebook feed algorithm, though on X, I don’t know that people will find this approach overly valuable.
Musk says that you’ll still have the regular Following and “For You” feeds as well, but you’ll also be able to view this version, which will hopefully help to avoid concerns about people missing important content from those they follow (Musk also notes that a recent algorithm slip-up meant many people didn’t see any posts from people they follow in the app).
It’ll be interesting to see in practice, but it seems like maybe one feed too many, while X is also likely losing out on engagement by letting users set their “Following” feed as the default, rather than forcing them to the algorithmic “For You” instead (note: I’m not saying that this is a bad approach, as it’s better for users to have the choice here, but Meta is driving a lot more engagement by forcing users to essentially watch a lot more Reels in the default algorithmic home feed).
Musk also says that Grok will soon process every single post that comes into the system for sorting, which will help to improve engagement.
“There’s about 100 million posts (on X) per day just in English [and] Grok is gonna’ start off reading [all the posts], then Grok will understand them and categorize them and match them to users. It's like, this is this is not a job humans could ever do.”
That, theoretically, will lead to improvements in relevance, and subsequent engagement, based on AI analysis of every post that comes in, and shifting them on, like a mail hub, to relevant users.
Again, we’ll see how that works in practice.
Musk also says that X will soon get semantic search capability, where users will be able to simply ask a question, and get a display of all relevant posts, in text or visual form, that match that query.
On the Rogan pod, Musk also discussed the company’s efforts to implement encryption in X DMs (which it’s now calling XChat), via a system that’s “kind of similar to bitcoin.”
X’s encryption process, which it re-launched to paying users in June, has been heavily criticized for its various potential vulnerabilities. And while Musk admits that it’s not perfect as yet, the company’s aim is to create the “least insecure” messaging system available.
On top of this, Musk says that X is planning to launch a separate X Chat app, so that you can conduct your private DMs in a wholly separate process.
I’m not sure that a heap of people will take it up, but that is more in line with Musk’s original “everything app” vision for the app, which he’d modeled after chat apps like WeChat.
Maybe that would then better facilitate payments, and the take-up of X’s planned XMoney service among consumers.
Overall, Musk’s vision for X seems to have shrunk significantly from his original bold plans for the app, which, in his view, would have seen X become a social media powerhouse, with close to a billion users.
Musk’s original investor pitch deck, created just after he took over the app, suggested that X would be generating half of its income from subscriptions, and that the app would reach 931 million users by 2028. To be fair, Musk also projected that X would have 600 million monthly actives by 2025, which it apparently does have (based on X’s reporting at least), so maybe it is on track to reach his original, lofty goals, though X Premium intake is well lower than Musk projected, and there’s seemingly no path for any significant new take-up in X usage.
XMoney has always been central to Musk’s goals in this respect, and maybe, there is still a path to introducing payments in the app that will lead to big take-up. But the general lack of trust in Musk, based on his various public stances and statements, seems likely to keep many people away from this, while there’s also no precedent of any social app driving significant interest in in-stream payments among Western users.
Chinese consumers seem far more interested in bunching every function into a single app, Western users, not so much, and that seems like the central conceit in Musk’s broader plan, even if he can gain the relevant approvals and put payments in place.
Without this as the driver, it does seem like Musk has reverted to xAI instead, and driving revenue from X via his AI start-up, with the data from X powering his platform. That could be of value, in theory, but it depends on how many people keep using X, and how xAI can create products that will be of value based on this.
In other words, X remains a theoretical project, with some good indicators, and some bad. Though nothing, at least at present, points to X seeing a significant resurgence in popularity.
