X (formerly Twitter) announced earlier that it is testing a new experience for opening links in posts. This adjustment is in response to long-standing complaints from creators that "posts containing links generally have low reach and interaction rates."
Nikita Bier, product director of "X", shared the change through her account and explained that the test will be pushed to users on the iOS platform first.
We're testing a new link experience, starting on iOS — to make it easier for your followers to engage with your post while browsing links.
For creators, a common complaint is that posts with links tend to get lower reach. This is because the web browser covers the post and… pic.twitter.com/oWraLpPwji
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) October 19, 2025
Keep the interaction button visible
According to the operation video shown by Nikita Bier, when the user clicks on the link, the web browser will open, but the original post will be "collapsed to the bottom of the screen" instead of completely jumping or being completely covered as before.
The main purpose of this design is to allow users to see and access interactive buttons such as "Like", "Repost" and "Reply" on the original post at any time while reading the webpage content, thereby reducing the friction of interaction.
Solve the signal distortion of "jump and forget"
As for why this change was made, Nikita Bier explained that the main reason link posts aren't currently effective is that "web browsers completely overwrite the original post, causing people to forget to like or reply after viewing the page."
He emphasized that this interface process prevented the "X" platform from receiving a "clear signal about the quality of the content," which in turn affected the algorithm's subsequent recommendations for posts. The new interface clearly aims to address this "signal distortion" problem.
The controversy over platform traffic limit is still there
However, the outside world remains on the sidelines as to whether simply adjusting the interface pop-up windows can completely solve the reach issue.
After all, "X" has been accused in the past of throttling links to specific news sites or competing platforms like Threads. Elon Musk himself has also bluntly stated in the past that links "don't get a lot of attention."
Nikita Bier also added her advice that creators should always ensure that the post "is high-quality content that can stand on its own," rather than just throwing out a link, implying that the content itself is still the key.
