Elon Musk has now been in control of Twitter/X for nine months, which has seen a raft of modifications carried out on the app, together with UI tweaks, practical updates, expanded choices for paying subscribers, shifts in coverage, and extra.
Marking the brand new milestone, right this moment, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who herself has been within the position 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 12 months. To the entire 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 be aware 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 positive how that applies on this occasion.
To underline the workforce’s progress, Yaccarino has printed a list of 73 key updates that the X workforce has rolled out underneath Musk:
Which appears to be like spectacular, particularly when you think about that the X workforce has executed all this with 80% fewer staff, after Musk’s mass cull.
However on nearer scrutiny, it’s not a wholly correct illustration of recent work being executed on the app.
The overwhelming majority of those initiatives have been in growth earlier than Musk got here in, together with Group Notes, Subscriptions, view counts, long-form posts, and many others. Most of those, as Musk himself has acknowledged, have been already near launch, however hadn’t been given the inexperienced gentle by earlier administration. In order that they’re not precisely new updates that the a lot smaller X workforce have totally carried out, as such.
By my rely, 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, have been already developed by the earlier Twitter workforce, or aren’t truly key upgrades in any respect (fee limits, the launch of its watered-down transparency report, minor video performance modifications).
So solely 16% of those listed upgrades are literally new components. Which continues to be progress, and stays considerably spectacular with so few employees truly 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 in all probability wish to be certain that these are certainly priceless, related enhancements that you simply’re claiming accountability for.
The actual problem now, nonetheless, is what X does subsequent. There aren’t actually every other shelved components from Twitter 1.0 ready to be launched, so no matter comes any further is definitely being wholly constructed by Elon’s new X workforce. As such, the modifications which might be rolled out shifting ahead will extra carefully replicate Elon’s imaginative and prescient for the app, and that’ll give us a a lot better thought of how they’re in a position to 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 strategy.
You’ll be able to learn Yaccarino’s full record of X achievements here.
