Musk and Bier say X needs to rethink its recommendation algorithm and improve the timeline

Elon Musk and X product lead Nikita Bier said X needs to revisit the recommendation algorithm behind its For You timeline.

Musk says X needs to overhaul the algorithm

A post from OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy prompted Elon Musk and Nikita Bier to comment on the timeline algorithm.

Karpathy wrote that X now feels more aggressive and Reddit-like than at any point in the past, and that the algorithm encourages that trend in his deleted post.

Musk replied “We need a complete overhaul of the algorithm”

Sophie from the X-focused news account MTS quoted Musk and said the old X timeline felt like a community tailored to each user, where you could see posts from people you interacted with and accounts you cared about.

Bier responded that the old algorithm had a clear recommendation source for content that friends had liked.

Bier also said the current algorithm has become smart enough to infer and surface that kind of content, but X now shows less content from friends of friends overall. He said he would share that feedback with the algorithm team.

Bier added that X needs to show posts that preserve long-term relationships between users, rather than optimizing only for consumption.

He said strong content brings users in, while emotional connection keeps them around.

X also shows a prototype that lets users tune their timeline with Grok prompts

X user bone suggested giving users multiple algorithm presets and customization sliders. Bier replied that X has tested many prototypes involving sliders, prompts, and similar controls.

In the video attached to Bier’s post, a user enters a prompt into Grok, which creates a slider preset showing the share of topics such as “AI,” “tech,” “science,” “gaming,” and “sports.” The UI also lets users adjust each percentage as needed.

We've prototyped a million versions of sliders, prompts, etc. (Credit to @benjitaylor for this one)

However, some issues we haven't reconciled:

A. It's unclear that algo preferences can be expressed through toggles

B. Even if we solved (A)—i.e., the user could perfectly… pic.twitter.com/EmQAZYLtAm

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) June 25, 2026

X already uses Grok to analyze posts and decide what to show in the current timeline. X has also said in the past that it wants to let users tune their timelines with prompts, and this prototype fits that direction.

Bier listed several open questions around this type of UI: whether users can express algorithm preferences through toggles with enough precision, whether X can translate those preferences into an actual timeline, and whether X should override a user’s choice to opt out of news and politics when showing information about earthquakes or terrorist attacks.

Despite those issues, X offers Custom Timelines and Snooze Topics. Bier said those features help power users.

What is X’s [Snooze Topics]? How to use it and why you may not be able to snooze topics

Sometimes your X For you timeline surfaces topics you do not want to see. In those cases, the [Snooze Topics] feature can help by preventing specific topics from appearing for 24 hours. This article explains how to use Snooze Topics and why it may not be available.

April 24, 2026

My analysis

X’s old timeline often showed posts that friends had liked, even when those posts had few likes. That made X feel more like a smaller community.

The current timeline focuses on topics. It shows few posts from accounts you follow, which makes following accounts feel less useful.

I use Lists to read posts from people I often interact with and from friends, but those posts rarely appear in the For You timeline.

Musk and Bier’s recent comments suggest that X may improve the current situation, where posts from friends and related accounts have become hard to see.

If X revises its algorithm, future timelines may show more posts from accounts and communities you interact with over time, rather than only showing posts about topics you like.

The prototype video Bier shared also shows Liquid Glass applied to the X app.

As far as I know, X has not shown a Liquid Glass prototype before this.

X has said it plans to support Liquid Glass, and the work appears to be progressing.

X for iOS to adopt Liquid Glass as iOS 27 beta users see the first UI changes

Benji Taylor, a designer at X and xAI, said the company plans to bring Apple’s Liquid Glass design system to X for iOS. Some users running the iOS 27 beta have begun seeing Liquid Glass-style visuals in parts of the X app.

June 13, 2026