X has adjusted its recommendation algorithm to give greater visibility to posts from "mutuals" — accounts that a user follows and who follow them back — in an effort to make the platform feel less combative. Head of product Nikita Bier said the previous algorithm had been missing this data, which caused friends to appear less often in reply sections and made interactions feel like "a battleground" full of strangers. The change is intended to make X feel more like a community rather than a stream of disconnected voices, and to help users cluster around shared interests, a feature Bier said many had requested.

The update is part of a broader push by X to make the platform more appealing to creators, following earlier changes this year to how it compensates accounts for original content and the recent launch of a built-in video editor. It also echoes moves by Meta's Threads, which last month introduced a "Your Algo" tool letting users control their feeds privately, as it seeks to differentiate itself from X; Threads has since reached 500 million monthly active users.