Elon Musk has now been answerable for Twitter/X for nine months, which has seen a raft of modifications applied on the app, together with UI tweaks, purposeful updates, expanded choices for paying subscribers, shifts in coverage, and extra.
Marking the brand new milestone, in the present day, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who herself has been within the function for only two months, has taken the chance to credit her new team for his or her progress in creating the app, in alignment with Musk’s imaginative and prescient, which, in line with Yaccarino, has seen a heap of upgrades shipped in difficult circumstances.
As per Yaccarino:
“As we construct the way forward for X, the tempo of innovation speaks for itself. If we will obtain this in 9 months, simply think about the scope of our ambition within the subsequent yr. To all the groups and companions making it occur on a regular basis, thanks. To our passionate, rising communities of film buffs, sports activities fanatics, tech trailblazers, and the world over – the way forward for X belongs to YOU – blaze your glory!”
The latter word being a reference to Twitter’s new ‘Blaze Your Glory’ tagline, which is a reference, intentional or not, to dying in a hail of gunfire. Not precisely certain how that applies on this occasion.
To underline the group’s progress, Yaccarino has revealed a list of 73 key updates that the X group has rolled out beneath Musk:
Which appears to be like spectacular, particularly when you think about that the X group has finished all this with 80% fewer staff, after Musk’s mass cull.
However on nearer scrutiny, it’s not a completely correct illustration of recent work being finished on the app.
The overwhelming majority of those tasks had been in growth earlier than Musk got here in, together with Neighborhood Notes, Subscriptions, view counts, long-form posts, and so on. Most of those, as Musk himself has acknowledged, had been already near launch, however hadn’t been given the inexperienced gentle by earlier administration. So that they’re not precisely new updates that the a lot smaller X group have totally applied, as such.
By my depend, of the 73 updates Yaccarino has listed, simply 12 of them are literally new, together with the up to date Twitter Blue (now ‘XBlue’) verification program, longer video uploads, the launch of its advert income share program, bookmark counts, voice and video calls, Highlights tab, improved video playback, and job listings.
The remainder of these improvements are both repeatedly talked about within the record, had been already developed by the earlier Twitter group, or aren’t really key upgrades in any respect (price limits, the launch of its watered-down transparency report, minor video performance modifications).
So solely 16% of those listed upgrades are literally new parts. Which continues to be progress, and stays considerably spectacular with so few employees really left within the constructing. However I’ve by no means seen a platform so eager to pat itself on the again, and if that’s what you’re doing, you most likely wish to make sure that these are certainly priceless, related enhancements that you simply’re claiming accountability for.
The actual problem now, nevertheless, is what X does subsequent. There aren’t actually some other shelved parts from Twitter 1.0 ready to be launched, so no matter comes any further is definitely being wholly constructed by Elon’s new X group. As such, the modifications which can be rolled out shifting ahead will extra intently mirror Elon’s imaginative and prescient for the app, and that’ll give us a a lot better concept of how they’re capable of handle such with their skeleton crew.
Many have been predicting that, at some stage, Musk’s deep employees cuts will impede the app.
As Yaccarino is proud to spotlight, that hasn’t occurred but, nevertheless it’ll be fascinating to see how this record develops over the subsequent 9 months, and what that reveals of X’s new growth method.
You’ll be able to learn Yaccarino’s full record of X achievements here.
