New change at X (formerly Twitter). The social media platform will soon change the look of news articles displayed in users’ newsfeeds.
Currently, news articles are displayed with a small preview card that shows the title of the article, a small text summary (the latter being web-only), and the source website. With the new update, articles will now only be displayed with a link and the image of the article, without any additional information or context. The image will serve as a link to the article.
The change comes from CEO Elon Musk and was announced via his official account. “This is straight from me,” he wrote. “It will greatly improve the aesthetics.” Musk reposted the unofficial “X News Daily” account, which wrote, “NEWS: X is changing the way news links display on the timeline. Title and text will be removed so links don’t only display the main image of the article.
“If you are a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform!”
The announcement comes only after Musk implored members of the media to use his service, writing, “If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then post directly to this platform!”
The X News Daily account offered some explanation for the decision, stating, “The change is supposed to help reduce the vertical pixel space that articles take up” and “It seems another reason why Elon wants to change this is to reduce clickbait”. It might also encourage the media to post about X, or at least use the Long post feature to provide more context before the link.”
Much like last week’s announcement that the blocking feature on X was going to be removed, no information on when the change will occur.
Source: “ZDNet.com”