X, formerly Twitter, will remove public likes to reduce negative behaviors. This change, confirmed by X engineers, aims to promote genuine interactions and includes new AI-powered features.
Public likes on the social media app X, formerly Twitter, are set to undergo a significant change.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, has decided to hide the public likes feature from user profiles.
The Likes tab will soon be removed from accounts, as reported by various media outlets.
Rumors about the removal of the Likes tab surfaced following a recent report.
X engineers have now confirmed this development.
Likes have been a longstanding feature on Twitter, as well as on other social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
Haofei Wang, an X engineer, explained the rationale: "Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior. To avoid troll reprisal or to maintain their public persona, many users are deterred from enjoying "edgy" stuff."
Previously, X Premium users had the option to hide their likes.
The platform now plans to remove the likes feature entirely.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is among the critics of this change.
Dorsey questioned why this modification was made and how it was different from bookmarking.
Technical Details:
Earlier this week, MacRumors researcher Aaron Perris discovered a new flag in the X app for iOS.
This setting, when enabled, renders every X user's public profile absolutely devoid of the likes tab.
Wang explained: "A like is visible to you and the author, who will receive a notification, but it is not visible to anybody else." However, a bookmark is private and accessible only to you."
Earlier this month, X introduced new AI-powered features to enhance user experience.
The X engineering team announced that X Premium subscribers will now receive comprehensive summaries of posts associated with each trending story on X.
These curated stories will be accessible under the ‘For You’ tab within the ‘Explore’ section of the platform.
X continues to innovate and introduce new features aimed at improving the overall user experience.
The removal of public likes is part of a broader strategy to encourage more genuine interactions and reduce negative behaviors.
Users are advised to adjust to these changes, as the public visibility of their likes will no longer be a feature.
The focus is shifting towards more private and personal ways of engaging with content, such as bookmarks.
Conclusion:
X's removal of public likes and addition of AI features reflect a strategic shift toward enhancing user experience and fostering healthier online interactions.