Musk says the algorithm of X will change to highlight smaller accounts

The company that used to be called Twitter is getting ready to launch a big change to how its app works. Elon Musk, who owns the company now, mentioned in a recent post that they’re updating the way the app shows you stuff.

Now, the app “For You” section gives you popular and trending posts from a lot of people, including those you follow. But the new update will make it show posts from smaller accounts more often, according to Musk.

Elon Musk pointed out that the posts and accounts featured in the update won’t just be from the people you already know or follow. This change aims to introduce users to new accounts they might find cool but haven’t come across yet. It’s a way to give smaller creators a chance to be seen by more people, which lines up with Musk’s goal of turning X into a platform for creators.

Recently, X has been focusing on creators. They’ve introduced new features like allowing longer posts, up to 25,000 characters for paying subscribers, the ability to upload videos up to two hours long, and they’ve started sharing ad revenue with creators. According to X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino, this program has paid out nearly $20 million to creators.

The main goal is to help creators on X grow their audience and profit from their posts by sharing ad earnings and offering subscription options for exclusive content. They’ve added features to encourage closer connections between fans and creators, like letting creators get messages from subscribers and recently introducing audio and video calling—, turning X into not just a social platform, but also a bit like Cameo.

So far, it’s unsure how much creators are getting into X. While some are building small audiences, most tend to use bigger platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram to connect with their followers. But if this new algorithm change on X works, it could help smaller creators reach more people. That might boost how much people use X and make it easier to discover new stuff. Whether it’ll work is a big question, especially since X might not be doing as well as before Musk took over, and new competitors like Bluesky, Post, and Spill are popping up.

Also Read | X/Twitter launches video and audio calls – here’s how to use this

Musk mentioned that the update to the recommendation algorithm should come out this week, after November 10, and they plan to keep improving it by making the code available for anyone to see and work on.