It looks like X’s reply sorting option is coming soon, with new references to the functionality now added to the back-end code in the app.
As you can see in this example, shared by X News Daily, X is looking to add in new options that would enable users to sort post replies in-stream, in order to highlight the most personally relevant engagements with any post.
X has been working on this for some time, with this latest example showing how the functionality is likely to work in live deployment.
Back in February, X News Daily also shared an example of how X’s post reply sorting might also enable users to filter comments by engagement.
That could make it easier to find the most interesting, or more recent responses to any update in-stream.
It’s unclear if that’s still a part of the coming update, but the hope would be that by enabling X’s systems to provide customized displays of post replies for all uses, that’ll then help to boost in-stream engagement.
Replies have become a bigger focus for X of late, because of its Creator Ad Revenue Share program, which sees verified X creators that are approved for the initiative get paid a percentage of the ad income for promotions that are displayed within the replies to their posts.
That’s put more focus on driving replies as a posting strategy, and as such, it makes sense for X to add in more ways to hone in on this element, and help creators better understand what’s likely to trigger response.
Which is why sorting by engagement more broadly makes sense, but this new display seemingly puts more focus on customized reply presentation based on personal engagement.
Which is a different approach, and maybe, in testing, X has found that this is a better way to drive relevance and interaction, as a result of being able to rank post replies.
Though it could also facilitate echo chambers, by prioritizing content from the profiles that you engage with. And either way, it would all depend on users actually using this ranking toggle, which they may not do.
But it’s another experiment, which does now seem close to live testing.