It’s taken it a while to catch up, but X is now latching onto the “Starter Packs” trend that was first popularized by Bluesky back in 2024.
Starter Packs make it easier for new users to find relevant people to follow in a specific niche, which is helpful for new users when they first open an account. Discovery was a particular focus on Bluesky, given the variances in usernames from other platforms, so it launched Starter Packs in various niches and interests to help people make the switch to the app.
And now, X has its own variation, called, creatively, “Starterpacks” (the lack of a space between the words is the differentiator).
Interesting to see “Meme coins” highlighted here, considering that these communities were recently targeted by X’s latest anti-spam updates.
As explained by X’s head of product Nikita Bier:
“Over the last few months, we scoured the world for the top posters in every niche & country We've compiled them into a new tool called Starterpacks: to help new users find the best accounts - big or small - for their interests.”
I mean, he could have at least mentioned Bluesky and acknowledged its work here, but whatever.
So now, you can easily find the most respected voices to follow on X, or the most active at least, which will help you populate your feed with relevant content, and help X’s algorithm better understand what you’re interested in, and what it should be looking to show you from across the app.
Which could be relevant for some niches. Like conspiracy theorists, or morons, or both.
But for most, I’m not sure that discovery is so much the problem, as most people are pretty familiar with what’s on offer on X.
But then again, discovery has always been a challenge, with Twitter acknowledging way back in 2015 that at least part of its growth issues related to difficulties in people understanding the app, and how to find relevant follows.
And with Bier targeting new user growth specifically, this does make sense, and it could be a valuable addition.
And when you also consider that the average X user only sees 20-30 posts per day, any expanded discovery, and improved relevance, can only be beneficial for driving engagement, while X also sees an additional 100 million or so new posts added to the platform every day, so there should be no shortage of niche updates.
Also worth noting: Threads also has its own version of starter packs, which is launched in December 2024. So eventually, they all become the same, at least in a functional context.
