Elon Musk’s social media venture, formerly known as Twitter and now named X, is undergoing a significant transformation that could reshape how news links are presented and engaged with.
Musk’s strategic move involves altering the appearance of news article links shared on the platform, with the main change being the removal of headlines and accompanying text.
Instead, only the lead image from the news articles will be retained in the shared links.
This shift, announced by Musk is aimed at increasing user engagement on X.
“The intention behind this change is to potentially entice users to explore the platform’s subscription service, which offers more comprehensive details. With the current format, news links are displayed as “cards” featuring an image, source address, and a condensed headline on users’ timelines. This layout encourages clicks and helps news publishers gather more readers.”
According to reports, the new format might prompt users to add their text when sharing these modified links, potentially driving them towards considering X’s premium service, which allows for longer posts of up to 25,000 characters.
Premium subscribers now can share extended videos, leading to increased visibility for their posts and a share of advertising revenue.