How Elon Musk Is Changing the Twitter Experience

Elon Musk has declared he desires to transform Twitter into an all-inclusive app that individuals can use for funds, information and meals orders.

“Shopping for Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the the whole lot app,” Mr. Musk posted in October, weeks earlier than finishing a $44 billion acquisition of the social community. He later stated Twitter could possibly be like WeChat, the favored Chinese language app that mixes social media, prompt messaging and cost providers.

However practically six months after Mr. Musk took over Twitter, his ambitions for the platform have remained largely that — ambitions.

Though the billionaire has made dozens of tweaks to Twitter, they’ve largely been beauty. His adjustments have largely affected the platform’s look, stated Jane Manchun Wong, an impartial software program engineer who research social apps. These updates embrace including extra symbols and metrics displayed with tweets, however Twitter’s most important components — making it a spot to shortly share information and talk about reside occasions — haven’t altered.

Nonetheless, customers’ experiences are altering. That’s as a result of the sorts of tweets that they see are being affected by Mr. Musk’s behind-the-scenes changes. He has tinkered with the algorithm that decides which posts are most seen, thrown out content moderation rules that ban sure sorts of tweets and changed a verification process that confirms the identities of customers.

The upshot is a Twitter that appears just like the way in which it at all times has, however that’s clunkier and fewer predictable in what tweets are surfaced and seen, users said. In some circumstances, that has induced confusion. Even Twitter’s staff have expressed frustration.

Final month, Andrea Conway, a designer at Twitter, posted concerning the design adjustments, saying: “We all know you hate it. We hate it too. We’re engaged on making it suck much less.” The modifications, she added, might ultimately make Twitter “utterly unusable.”

Mr. Musk didn’t reply to a request for remark.

So what appears completely different on Twitter now, and what are the adjustments underlying the tweaks?

The Newsfeed

Probably the most notable distinction is Twitter’s newsfeed, the stream of posts that individuals see after they open the app. Newsfeeds beforehand appeared as a single circulation of posts, displaying tweets from solely the accounts {that a} consumer adopted.

Mr. Musk has cleaved the newsfeed into two. Now when customers open Twitter’s app, they see an algorithmically curated “For You” feed, which mimics a preferred characteristic on TikTok, and a “Following” tab.

The “For You” newsfeed incorporates adjustments that Mr. Musk has made to Twitter’s advice algorithm, pulling in additional tweets from folks a consumer doesn’t comply with and suggesting new matters and pursuits. That additionally means customers would possibly see posts from all kinds of content material creators whom they won’t be concerned with. At one level in February, the algorithm flooded users’ feeds with tweets from Mr. Musk.

Right here’s how a consumer’s “For You” newsfeed would possibly look, with an instance of a tweet from an account that the consumer doesn’t comply with and that the algorithm suggests. For customers to see posts solely from folks they comply with, they must swap to the “Following” tab.

Verify Marks

Mr. Musk has additionally modified Twitter by including a flood of color-coded verify marks, which belie a deeper change to how the platform confirms the identities of organizations, governments, notable people and different official accounts.

Twitter beforehand provided white-and-blue verify marks for customers who had been “verified,” a type of badge for individuals who had substantiated their identities and who had been sometimes public figures, reminiscent of politicians and celebrities. The verify marks had been free.

Mr. Musk has begun charging customers an $8 month-to-month price in alternate for a verify mark, with the free verify marks starting to disappear this month. He’s primarily favoring funds from subscribers, departing from the concept a verify mark meant an account was notable.

Now yellow verify marks point out company accounts, whereas grey verify marks denote the accounts of presidency officers. Firms can even add their emblem to staff’ accounts, verifying their employment. People who pay get the blue-and-white verify mark.

Those that paid for verify marks can be boosted by Twitter’s advice algorithm and be eligible to seem in folks’s “For You” newsfeeds, Mr. Musk said final month. That might stop spam accounts from gaming the algorithm and rising to the highest of the “For You” newsfeeds, he added.

Metrics, Metrics, Metrics

For many of Twitter’s historical past, customers might solely like, retweet or reply to a submit. The numbers of replies, likes and retweets then confirmed up on the finish of a tweet.

Underneath Mr. Musk, each tweet now has extra metrics hooked up. He has added a tally exhibiting what number of occasions a submit has been considered, saying the full variety of views can show a message’s reputation higher than its whole likes or retweets. Twitter has additionally added a tally for the variety of occasions a tweet is bookmarked and saved.

Which means each tweet now has the variety of replies, likes, retweets, bookmarks and views appended to it. Right here’s an instance of how tweets seemed earlier than, when there have been fewer numbers, and after, with extra metrics proven.

What do all of those strikes add as much as? Not essentially the smoothest expertise, some Twitter customers and staff stated.

“Twitter has leaned in to the ‘loopy uncle’ contingent,” stated Chris Messina, who is named the inventor of the hashtag, including that he now sees really useful tweets that don’t align along with his pursuits. “When it comes to the product, general I feel the standard has actually regressed.”

Extra manufacturing by Jeanne Noonan DelMundo.