“If you're a writer or journalist who left X in the last couple of years, coming back could be the biggest arbitrage opportunity of your career,” stated Nikita Bier, head of product at X (formerly Twitter), in a recent post. This remark coincides with a new initiative X is currently testing: enhanced functionality for messages containing links. Bier aims for users to read and respond to linked content—including likes and retweets—without leaving the app. These trials are now underway on iOS versions of the app, including in Spain.
If you're a writer or journalist who left X in the last couple years, coming back could be the biggest arbitrage opportunity of your career. https://t.co/T0RQZWxNNG
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) October 19, 2025
Since Elon Musk‘s acquisition, links in posts have experienced a decline in visibility: initially, the text of titles was hidden (which was later reversed) and their promotion within the algorithm appeared less robust. Users sharing links often resorted to posting an image first, followed by the link in a subsequent message. Bier clarified that this was not an intentional penalization by Musk; rather, a browsing issue was at fault: “the browser obscures the post, and people forget to like or respond, so X doesn't receive a clear signal about the content's reception.” Bier's goal is to ensure that all content gets equal visibility in the timeline.
Media and journalists stand to gain significantly from this strategic shift, should it be fully implemented. Since 2023, traffic to media outlets from social networks, including X, has dropped by 30%. The discussions among journalists regarding their continued presence on X extend beyond just link visibility; concerns about misinformation and propaganda have made the platform unviable for many.
Increased Transparency
In addition to potential improvements for links, Bier has promised greater transparency about account ownership. Users will now see the country of origin for each account on its profile page, alongside other details such as previous usernames and account creation location. This initiative aims to clarify whether individuals tweeting persistently about specific topics, like politics or sports, are local to those discussions or operating from remote locations. It also serves as a method for identifying bot accounts.
This update could raise privacy concerns, as some users may view it as a breach of confidentiality. The company plans to disclose sensitive information regarding account creators or users operating from authoritarian regions. However, X assures that privacy settings will allow users to opt out of this disclosure.
Elon Musk announced the hiring of Nikita Bier on June 30. Bier is known for founding the apps Gas and TBH, which were later acquired by Discord and Facebook, respectively. Gas, which enjoyed significant popularity in 2022 for facilitating anonymous compliments among teenagers, was discontinued shortly after its acquisition by Discord.
In addition to these enhancements, X is launching a marketplace for nicks (usernames) intended for subscribers, providing opportunities to acquire inactive names that may interest some users. Currently, the page is in beta mode and allows users to join a waitlist. Following a temporary outage of Signal on Monday due to issues with Amazon's cloud service, AWS, Musk leveraged the situation to promote the new chat feature on X. These initiatives may be steps toward his long-promised superapp, designed to combine social networking, messaging, payments, and AI capabilities.
