X Updates Algorithm to Boost Mutuals

If you've ever made a post on X and have seen your reply section overrun by strangers bickering back and forth rather than actual friends, X claims that the problem will be fixed soon.

Changes

The product head at X, Nikita Bier, stated on Monday that the company is introducing changes to its algorithm to prioritize posts and replies that come from your "mutuals," i.e., your followers who are also following you.

As Bier explained, the lack of such a signal means that your friends would appear less frequently in replies, creating the sense of a quarrel with random people.

In simple terms, your friends' replies would end up drowned in noise created by others because of a simple oversight in the algorithm.

Importance

It is not a major renovation of the feed algorithm; Bier described it as a small alteration himself. Still, small does not mean unimportant. Often, it is the reply section where the most aggressive voices prevail, silencing the discussion among those who have a connection with one another. By giving more weight to mutual connections, X hopes to change the paradigm, allowing more discussions and dialogue than competition from strangers.

Another advantage that Bier highlighted is that this update would help interest-based communities emerge organically, which users have apparently requested.

Part of a Bigger Picture

This move is not an isolated incident. In the last few months, X has made a number of updates that show a certain trend: fostering communication rather than making noise. Back in March, the company updated its monetization rules for content creators focusing more on original content than on reposted content. Last month, it launched an integrated video editor enabling users to create and edit videos right within the application.

Taken together, all these steps may indicate that the company seeks to turn itself into a community platform rather than merely a source of information flow.

The Factor of Threads

The timing of the update is hard to miss. Meta's Threads has been actively implementing features aimed at building a community within the app, such as "Your Algo" which lets the users manage their feeds in a more personalized way. As Threads gains more users, this latest update from X seems to be a part of a bigger competition.