Some good news for the new year, with post headlines now beginning to reappear on link previews posted to X once again.
They’re just now coming back to the web version of the app, with other platforms to follow, with the headline now in a slightly different place, and the preview text not shown.
As you can see in this example, shared by 9 to 5 Google, the new X link preview format will include a basic headline displayed over the article image.
Which, somehow, is supposed to look better in-stream than the old version, at least according to X owner Elon Musk.
As you can see in the example on the right, the previous link previews on X used to display both the header image, the title, and the link preview text, giving you much more context as to what you were clicking. But Elon personally didn’t like them, so back in October, he demanded that X remove all text from link previews in-stream to make them more “esthetically” pleasing.
But then, in November, Elon himself posted this:
Shortly after, amid a number of his followers highlighting the stupidity of this format to him, Elon decided to re-add headlines, leading to this new format.
Which looks objectively worse, but having headlines back will at least make it a little easier for social media managers to compose posts in the app, without having to re-share the headline, and guide followers to tap on the link for more.
But it’s still a downgrade from the previous link preview option. But then again, Elon would prefer that people post long-form content natively to the app. Which major publications will never do, but major publications are the enemy anyway, or something.
I don’t know, it looks bad, but it’s better than nothing.
No word on when link headlines will be rolled out to all users and platforms.