Twitter Essentials: What You Should Know About X

Twitter has been the most popular micro-blogging social media platform since 2006. Originally it was a space for sharing opinions, and staying updated on news. Since 2022, the platform underwent significant transformations after Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition, leading to its rebranding as X. If you haven’t used the app for a while, it might be a little confusing for you. Here is everything you should know about it!

Twitter X essentials

For those exploring X for the first time, the platform's intricacies might be perplexing, with the app falling short in explaining Twitter basics to beginners. Here's a brief guide covering the essentials:

• Post (formerly tweet): A post is a message published from your Twitter account, serving as a status update or an expression of your opinion.
• Repost (formerly retweet): Reposting involves sharing another user's post with your followers.
• Reply: A reply is a user's comment left beneath a post on X.
• Like: Represented by the heart icon, it signifies your appreciation for a post's content.
• Twitter handles or usernames: A username serves as a user's unique ID on X, e.g., @elonmusk for Elon Musk.
• Timeline or feed: The timeline or feed showcases posts from other users on X.
• Direct messages (DMs): DMs facilitate private messages or group conversations with users.
• List: A Twitter or X list offers a personalized timeline featuring posts from specific users.
• Thread: A Twitter or X thread encompasses a series of posts on a common theme or topic.
• Quote post (formerly quote tweet): Similar to a repost, it allows you to share another person's post along with your opinions in a tweet.
• Hashtag: A term or phrase preceded by the '#' symbol, hashtags aid in categorizing posts for easier retrieval via X's search engine.
• Bookmark: This feature enables you to save a post for future reference or reading.
• Mention: When tagging a user in a post or reply, use their username with the '@' symbol to notify them of the mention.

How Twitter X Algorithm works

Have you thought about how X decides which tweets make it to your timeline? The driving force behind X's tweet recommendations lies in its algorithm. So, how exactly does the Twitter algorithm operate? Following Elon Musk's acquisition, the social media giant's algorithm was promised to become public.

The platform unveiled its algorithm to the public on April 1, 2023, providing a detailed breakdown on its blog. Additionally, X uploaded the algorithm's code to GitHub.

For those who prefer a simplified explanation without researching thousands of lines of code, here's a breakdown. The journey of tweets involves three stages before they appear in your feed.

1. In the initial stage, X scours tweets from diverse sources, including accounts you follow and those outside your following list.
2. Various machine learning models assess the likelihood of your engagement with these posts.
3. For tweets from accounts you don't follow, X analyzes interactions within your following list, considering whether users you know engage with posts you like. The platform also identifies users and posts aligned with your interests, narrowing down the search from millions of tweets to 1,500 posts.
4. The algorithm proceeds to rank the posts based on relevance, incorporating engagement metrics like replies, retweets, and likes, among others.
5. In the final stage, the algorithm filters the selected tweets, eliminating posts from blocked or muted users, along with other filters aimed at enhancing result quality.
6. The ultimate pool of tweets is then blended with follow recommendations and ads before appearing in your feed.
   

Additionally, X's Official partner TweetDeleter offers a solution for maintaining a clean Twitter presence. With TweetDeleter's features, users can efficiently manage and delete old and new tweets in bulk, ensuring their Twitter history aligns with platform guidelines and avoiding any potential account restrictions or content-related issues. Now you can use the platform with confidence!