X, formerly Twitter, remains one of the fastest ways to follow breaking news, sports, and niche conversations in real time. The core product still works: you can follow accounts, see what people are talking about, post short updates, and find communities around almost any topic. For news junkies and people whose professional networks live there, it’s still effectively irreplaceable.
The rebranding to X is the least of the problems. The algorithmic feed has become noticeably worse at showing content users actually want, often prioritizing engagement-bait and paid subscribers over the people you chose to follow. The platform’s verification system shifted from a trust signal to a paid feature, which meaningfully degraded the ability to identify credible sources. Moderation has also changed in ways that many long-time users find uncomfortable.
The app itself runs fine technically. Grok AI integration is available for Premium subscribers and is useful occasionally. But the underlying product feels like it’s optimizing for something other than the experience that built its user base.
Verdict: X still has the network effects and real-time speed that made Twitter worth using, but years of product decisions have steadily eroded the experience for a large share of its original audience.
