X Is Changing How It Displays Articles

If you use the X app on iPhone, there’s a good chance that the links you open today will be different than yesterday. Indeed, the platform tries to increase engagement on posts containing links, by keeping the Like, Comment, Repost, Favorites and Share buttons active in a new footer, even when you click on an external article.

When you click a link in X, it doesn’t actually exit the app, but instead uses a special version of Chrome (on Android) or Safari (on iPhone) to open the article in X. This hasn’t changed. But what has happened is that on iPhone, you will now continue to see interactive elements at the bottom of the page, with buttons you can press to interact directly with X while reading. Plus, when you first navigate to a link or scroll up, you’ll even see part of the original social media post that led you there above these buttons. These items will remain even if you click on another link in the article you are reading.

This is a small change, although it may seem a bit busy, but it indicates a potential solution to a major problem. According to X product manager Nikita Bier, the idea is to try to increase traffic for posts with links, by making it easier for users to interact with them, even after clicking on them.

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Much controversy has arisen over X-rated posts that include links that generate less traffic than those that do not, especially after the platform was acquired by current owner Elon Musk. Although the site did not admit it directly, SEO experts have recently started warning users to avoid putting links in their trafficclaiming that X now deprioritizes posts with links because they drive people away from their news feed. Musk also makes comments which some have accused of implying that this was the case.

Beer, however, refuted this when launching the new interface for opening links on iOSinstead saying that “links aren’t deboosted”, and implying that the lack of interactive timeline elements on them just leads to less engagement naturally, which is what the new change attempts to fix.

For example, the old method of opening links could potentially drive you away from the site and interrupt any intention you had of responding to the original social media post or sharing it with your own audience. Bier said that’s what led to lower reach for posts and that the new footer should help them “get a better signal.”

But at the same time, it’s clear that the new approach also has benefits for

But regardless of whether This could be a huge boon for users like me, who have always used X (and Twitter before it) to drive traffic to our posts. Whatever the reason this stopped working, it would be helpful to those who depend on it if this issue were fixed.

That said, it’s possible that you won’t see the new interface at all, or if you do, you might not like it. Luckily, if this sounds like you, you’re not short of options.

X Links are only different on iPhone, for now

In the post announcing the change, Bier mentioned that the “new link experience” is only being tested and is only available on iOS at the moment. This means that even though I currently see it on posts I open with my iPhone 15 Pro, that may not be the case. On my Pixel 10 I still get the old interface, and even on iPhone it doesn’t seem to affect all users. My husband, for example, can’t see the footer on his iPhone 17 Pro.

This is great news if you don’t like the look of the new footer, although if you want to try it, I unfortunately don’t have much advice at the moment. It appears that only certain users have access to it at the moment.

However, if you see the new footer but prefer not At, there are two steps you can take to get rid of it.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Changing how X links work is server-side, so downgrading your app or avoiding an update won’t save you here. Instead, to remove the footer from links you open in X, you must first open the link and then tap the three-dot button just above the footer on the right side.

From here you have two options. First, to open the page with its formatting intact but without a footer, tap “Open in Browser.” This will open the link in your default browser, but will also take you to that browser’s app, meaning you’ll have to return to app X if you want to continue scrolling once you’re done reading.

To stay in the X app, you can take advantage of Safari’s reader mode, which will always be available even if Chrome or another app is your default browser. In the same three-dot menu, just tap “Show Player” instead, and you’ll see a simple version of the link with all the website formatting removed, including the new App X footer, all without having to switch to a new app. To return to normal view, simply press the X button in the upper left corner. Then, to return to your X timeline, grab the footer and scroll up, or tap the X button just above the footer on the left side.