UPDATE: An X consumer claims that this report relies on false data that they shared with Fortune.
I’m not likely positive why Elon Musk is so aggravated by litter in the primary X feed, however for some purpose, he desires to chop out as a lot as completely attainable, in an effort to make it a extra “clear”, easy UI.
Which is perhaps extra enticing, I assume, however…
Musk’s newest suggestion alongside this line is to take away the date/time markers from the primary X feed, so that you simply simply have a transparent, scrolling row of posts, with the primary put up itself being the main target.
As reported by Fortune:
“The proposal of eradicating date stamps could be restricted to the timeline of posts on X, based on the supply. If a consumer clicks by means of on the put up, the date of when the put up was created would then be seen. Musk has informed staffers he believes the change will enhance the consumer interface of X.”
Which is alongside the identical strains as Musk’s push to take away all operate buttons and engagement counts in-stream, which would go away posts wanting like this:
iOS customers can now allow this show, by deactivating engagement buttons and efficiency information on posts, as an non-compulsory setting, whereas they’ll additionally swap on X’s side-swiping features to work together with posts, versus tapping guide buttons.
At one stage, X was trying to implement this for all customers, at Elon’s request, but it surely now appears to have eased again on that push, making it an non-compulsory UI as an alternative.
Below this new proposal, nevertheless, X would even be trying to take away the time/date indicator, together with the operate buttons and efficiency counts.
Which would go away the primary feed wanting one thing like this:
That may truly make common X posts look similar to X advertisements, which additionally don’t embody a time/date stamp.
And actually, I feel that it could improve engagement, as a result of folks wouldn’t have the context of time to understand how contemporary posts are in the primary feed. So X may present you a put up from days in the past, and your instinctive response could be to the content material itself, to not the date that it was posted, which could improve your tendency to react. As a result of perhaps you’d really feel much less inclined to react to an older, much less well timed replace, feeling such as you’d missed the boat or development.
However as Fortune factors out, it may additionally result in extra misinformation being shared within the app:
“Some X staffers consider eradicating the dates will make the platform needlessly “complicated” and can seemingly make problems with misinformation on the platform worse. Traditionally, most customers of Twitter, and now X, solely casually scroll on the platform, not often clicking by means of on particular person posts. The absence of dates from the timeline would seemingly depart most customers with out important context about data they’re seeing.”
So you might see a put up from days or perhaps weeks in the past, and react to that as if it’s latest information, whereas older updates might be extra simply re-shared, and seen in a unique context, based mostly on present occasions.
Basically, because the X supply notes, it could add a stage of confusion within the app. However then once more, if it elicits extra response, perhaps it’s price making an attempt?
It does instinctively really feel like a backwards transfer, however as famous, Elon is reportedly “obsessed” with revamping the UI of the app. It’s additionally price noting on this context that Twitter was lengthy criticized for its lack of innovation, and its hesitance to strive new issues.
Musk has proven that he has no such qualms, and perhaps, a extra plain X feed, even with out timestamps in the primary timeline, may drive extra curiosity.
It’s arduous to say with out experiencing it, and nobody’s going to take action until X makes it occur.
