News has emerged that X plans to remove visibility of likes, comments and reposts from replies. A recent finding indicated that the social network may soon implement this change, although users will still be able to view these metrics by clicking on individual replies. This development was discovered through a feature flag in X's iOS version 10.53, released recently. While the company has not officially announced the change, the feature appears to be in testing phases.
The idea of getting rid of these engagement metrics has got community talking, especially Dogecoin (DOGE) co-creator Billy Markus. And he is not happy about it.
Thus, Markus said that removing likes, comments and reposts could make users less likely to interact with the app and overall engagement will suffer. As numbers are really important for getting users engaged, removing them is like taking away the best bits from a game, argues the DOGE creator.
"Kill dopamine, kill app"
A sudden insight from an X dev however revealed that this design is not yet finalized, and the social network team is still working on iterating the feature internally. According to the developer, the company often tests new features privately before they are ready for public release.
Mushumir ButtMarkus had a mixed reaction to these updates as he questioned the logic behind the changes and suggested that more alterations could have a negative impact on the user experience. He even joked about removing avatars and usernames, pointing out the absurdity of the proposed changes.
As X continues to refine this feature, the final impact on user engagement remains uncertain.
Alex Dovbnya
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov