X changes the way it handles links to try to keep you in the app

X is testing a change to the way it handles links on iOS so that the buttons to like, reply and repost are always visible. Normally, when you click on a link on X, the page opens and completely covers the original post. Apparently, this leads to fewer people clicking like or interacting with the content.

A good portion of people probably don’t come back to Twitter at all after following an external link. So the company shrinks the original message down, instead of letting the web browser take up the entire screen, and goes further toward Elon Musk’s vision of X as an “app for everything” that you never have to leave.

It’s a common complaint that posts with links to X don’t perform well. The post announcing this new feature seems to suggest that the reason is the way the interface takes you away from X, and thus reduces engagement.

Elon also said in an article on X that there would be changes to how the recommendation system works, which could lead to an increase in the reach of posts containing links. He says the company is four to six weeks away from “removing all heuristics,” meaning likes and replies will have less impact. Instead, he says, “Grok will literally read every post and watch every video (over 100 million per day) to match users with the content they are most likely to find interesting.”

Moving to an AI-based understanding of the actual content of a post, instead of a more rules-based algorithm, has been a clear goal for X for some time. These changes could lead to increased reach, even for accounts with very few followers.