Twitter/X strips headlines out of news links: “It’s something Elon wants”
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Anadolu Agency)
Elon Musk doesn't want any news headlines on the social network formerly named Twitter. A change that started rolling out yesterday strips headlines out of news links, which Musk claims will make links look better on the social network that he renamed X.
"This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics," Musk wrote in a twitter.com post on August 22 after the change was reported to be in the works. The change is now live on the mobile app and web version but hasn't made its way to all of the company's apps. News link headlines continue to be displayed today on the Mac app, which is still called Twitter and hasn't been updated in nearly a year.
Previously, posting a news link on X/Twitter would create a box with the article's lead image, headline, and the domain of the news site. Now, a news link on X is just the article image with the site domain (e.g., arstechnica.com) superimposed on the bottom left. Clicking the image will take you to the news site's article.