Day 951 - Latest Twitter / X algorithm updates - https://golifelog.com/posts/latest-twitter-x-algorithm-updates-1691550744490
The algorithm on Twitter / X just got updated again. Thanks to [@NFT_GOD](https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1688584001466875904) who did the hard guesswork of scouring through the open source code.
Some highlights and what I took away from it:
### 1. Replies to posts are amplified even more now, over retweets
- Being the reply guy on big accounts had always been one way to 'borrow' their followers to grow, but now replies are even more emphasized.
- This shows being part of a conversation will be favoured. So it's even less about broadcasting, and also less about dropping a reply to an account, but more about being part of a group, multi-party discussion. Fostering a community is back!
- De-prioritise low value, 1-2 word replies, and increase higher value replies to a select few posts where I feel strongly for. Reply with why you agree, disagree, or share a personal story. Then QT the original post with your reply so that it shows up on your profile.
- Or end with a question in the reply. If author responds to you, your reply gets a boost.
### 2. Videos will be amplified.
- Videos will be pushed up on the feed more. The "You might like" section will be replaced with "Popular videos". Recently many new video features were released - picture-in-picture viewing, full screen video, X exclusive shows (e.g. by Tucker Carlson).
- Post more videos, less gifs and images. Might be good to post those sleek screen recordings using Screen.Studio since we're building products in public. A hack I've seen for static images: A video of a [static image with a moving animated gradient background](https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1688912571670364161). It's just a 3s video with sound! Pretty smart!
- If not so camera shy, even consider vlogging *ala* Tiktok style.
### 3. Content from creators with subscription switched on
- Subscription content will be pushed more on the feed.
- Apply to have subscription turned on. Accounts just having that, even if without posting subscription content, will still receive an algo boost on normal tweets apparently.
- If subscription is switched on, have a strategy for premium subscription content, like exclusive Spaces only for subscribers, long form posts sharing in-depth details of your products like revenue, or analyses.
### 4. Mention trending news and topics
- News and topics on What's Trending section will be emphasized.
- Hard to imagine how this will be relevant to indie hackers, unless it's a topic related to entrepreneurship, or Twitter. Maybe for other trends, borrow the trend topic and meme it for indie hacking? Like Barbieheimer memes we saw but reframed for indie hacking and products. Don't force this though as will come across as fake.
### 5. From 24h to 48h post life span
- Tweets can last longer on the main feed now. I'm seeing this happen already. Tweets from a few days ago can still get engagement. Still depends on how 'viral' it is of course, and most tweets will still die an organic death within hours.
- Not sure how relevant this is, action wise. It's great for us all, we might get more exposure time, but unsure what we can do for this.
### 6. Avoid deboosted content
- Deboosted content are stuff like links and mentions of competitor platforms like Threads.
- If your content is easy to scroll past, that gets deboosted as well! This was surprising to me. That means short, snappy, all-too-agreeable wisdom bomb tweets won't work no more.
- Basically, the algo will recommend posts based on how much time people spend on it – videos, long form posts, threads, no links.
- So avoid direct mentions of Threads, Mastodon, and other competitors etc. I suspect even threadbois using "a thread" will get deboosted, which ends up a good thing lol.
### Conclusion: What to act on
Caveat though: We can never be 100% sure what the code means because it's incomplete. But it lends clues for us to look out for in our daily experience using Twitter.
So what might an algo-optimized tweet post look like? A long form tweet, sharing a authentic and real/raw story, with a video showing something relevant to that story. Bonus points if you manage to link with with a trending topic, avoid mentions to competitors, and have subscription approved for your account.
Because let's face it: Sometimes we want that reach to help us market our products. Knowing the rules of the game we're playing on Twitter won't hurt. Even if you're not 'playing' *per se*, you're still affected by the algo rules. It would only help to know what rules and constraints you're playing against, and the choice is up to you to leverage it or not.
But the overall caveat for me is still this: **Don't tweet just for the sake of the algorithm.** That would be lame and fake, like threadbois in the past tweeting long threads full of fluff they paraphrased from Wikipedia. Being authentic and real will always be in fashion, no matter what algo changes there are. In cases where you want your genuine tweet to have greater reach—say when launching a product—tapping on some of these algo rules will help.
So authenticity before algorithm. Always.
Some highlights and what I took away from it:
### 1. Replies to posts are amplified even more now, over retweets
- Being the reply guy on big accounts had always been one way to 'borrow' their followers to grow, but now replies are even more emphasized.
- This shows being part of a conversation will be favoured. So it's even less about broadcasting, and also less about dropping a reply to an account, but more about being part of a group, multi-party discussion. Fostering a community is back!
- De-prioritise low value, 1-2 word replies, and increase higher value replies to a select few posts where I feel strongly for. Reply with why you agree, disagree, or share a personal story. Then QT the original post with your reply so that it shows up on your profile.
- Or end with a question in the reply. If author responds to you, your reply gets a boost.
### 2. Videos will be amplified.
- Videos will be pushed up on the feed more. The "You might like" section will be replaced with "Popular videos". Recently many new video features were released - picture-in-picture viewing, full screen video, X exclusive shows (e.g. by Tucker Carlson).
- Post more videos, less gifs and images. Might be good to post those sleek screen recordings using Screen.Studio since we're building products in public. A hack I've seen for static images: A video of a [static image with a moving animated gradient background](https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1688912571670364161). It's just a 3s video with sound! Pretty smart!
- If not so camera shy, even consider vlogging *ala* Tiktok style.
### 3. Content from creators with subscription switched on
- Subscription content will be pushed more on the feed.
- Apply to have subscription turned on. Accounts just having that, even if without posting subscription content, will still receive an algo boost on normal tweets apparently.
- If subscription is switched on, have a strategy for premium subscription content, like exclusive Spaces only for subscribers, long form posts sharing in-depth details of your products like revenue, or analyses.
### 4. Mention trending news and topics
- News and topics on What's Trending section will be emphasized.
- Hard to imagine how this will be relevant to indie hackers, unless it's a topic related to entrepreneurship, or Twitter. Maybe for other trends, borrow the trend topic and meme it for indie hacking? Like Barbieheimer memes we saw but reframed for indie hacking and products. Don't force this though as will come across as fake.
### 5. From 24h to 48h post life span
- Tweets can last longer on the main feed now. I'm seeing this happen already. Tweets from a few days ago can still get engagement. Still depends on how 'viral' it is of course, and most tweets will still die an organic death within hours.
- Not sure how relevant this is, action wise. It's great for us all, we might get more exposure time, but unsure what we can do for this.
### 6. Avoid deboosted content
- Deboosted content are stuff like links and mentions of competitor platforms like Threads.
- If your content is easy to scroll past, that gets deboosted as well! This was surprising to me. That means short, snappy, all-too-agreeable wisdom bomb tweets won't work no more.
- Basically, the algo will recommend posts based on how much time people spend on it – videos, long form posts, threads, no links.
- So avoid direct mentions of Threads, Mastodon, and other competitors etc. I suspect even threadbois using "a thread" will get deboosted, which ends up a good thing lol.
### Conclusion: What to act on
Caveat though: We can never be 100% sure what the code means because it's incomplete. But it lends clues for us to look out for in our daily experience using Twitter.
So what might an algo-optimized tweet post look like? A long form tweet, sharing a authentic and real/raw story, with a video showing something relevant to that story. Bonus points if you manage to link with with a trending topic, avoid mentions to competitors, and have subscription approved for your account.
Because let's face it: Sometimes we want that reach to help us market our products. Knowing the rules of the game we're playing on Twitter won't hurt. Even if you're not 'playing' *per se*, you're still affected by the algo rules. It would only help to know what rules and constraints you're playing against, and the choice is up to you to leverage it or not.
But the overall caveat for me is still this: **Don't tweet just for the sake of the algorithm.** That would be lame and fake, like threadbois in the past tweeting long threads full of fluff they paraphrased from Wikipedia. Being authentic and real will always be in fashion, no matter what algo changes there are. In cases where you want your genuine tweet to have greater reach—say when launching a product—tapping on some of these algo rules will help.
So authenticity before algorithm. Always.