X is adjusting its ranking system so replies from mutual connections — people you follow and who follow you back — appear more prominently under posts. According to the company’s head of product, Nikita Bier, the platform had been missing data that would have helped surface those responses, leaving the replies area crowded with unfamiliar accounts.
The change is being described as a modest tweak, but it reflects a broader effort to make conversations on the platform feel more personal and useful. Bier said the update should help users discover shared interests more easily, something people have reportedly been asking for. In business terms, the move may also support X’s push to make interactions feel less chaotic and more engaging, which could matter for retention and overall user experience.
Why X is making the change
The company appears to be trying to improve the quality of discussion in a section that has often felt noisy. Bier suggested the current setup could make the replies area feel more like a “battleground” than a place for conversation. By giving greater weight to replies from familiar accounts, X is aiming to make exchanges feel less toxic and more meaningful.
The update follows the shutdown of X’s Communities feature earlier this year. That product had offered a way for users to gather around shared interests, but it never gained much traction. Bier said it was used by less than 0.4 percent of users while accounting for 80 percent of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on the platform. He also said the feature consumed too much of the team’s attention while the rest of the app suffered.
Source: engadget.com
