Here’s everything you can’t do anymore since Twitter rebranded to X

Have you been on Twitter lately? If you haven’t logged into your Twitter account recently, you’re in for quite a few surprises. Elon Musk has been taking drastic decisions ever since he bought Twitter and one of his revolutionary business plans involves renaming the social media app to X.

Gone are the days we used to sign into Twitter and share tweets. It’s now November 2023, more than a year since Musk acquired the popular social media platform, and the cheery, avian blue-and-white icon got replaced with a dark insignia that simply says “X.”

Many users, that I interact with believe that Twitter — er, I mean “X” — has taken a turn for the worse. Others, on the other hand, find the rebrand to be refreshing. However, no matter where you stand, you can’t deny that there are some features stripped from the platform that we’ll all miss.

In July, Musk called X an “everything app,” but for an app that lets you do “everything,” there’s quite a lot we can no longer do.

Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.

The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2023

1. You can’t view X without logging in

Lurkers once had the luxury of sifting through Twitter without logging in or being a registered user.

Now, if you want to browse the social media platform, you have no choice but to sign into a Twitter account.

2. ‘Quote tweets’ are no longer within easy reach

Quote tweets used to be easy to access during Twitter’s heyday, but it’s now a thing of the past.

Unfortunately, due to an irksome redesign, you have to take a few extra steps to see quote tweets. You must now click on the three-dot icon and tap on “View post engagements” before clicking on “Quotes.” Plus, X no longer tells you how many quote tweets a post has.

3. You can’t tweet to a subgroup of followers

In late September, X announced that it’s sunsetting Circles, a feature that allowed users to pick and choose a subgroup of followers to receive specific posts.

PSA: we’re disabling Circles by October 31.

more info → https://t.co/sHY9l6SUFw

— Support (@Support) September 21, 2023

In other words, with Twitter Circles, instead of tweeting to all of your followers, you could interact with a smaller crowd. Unfortunately, you can’t do that anymore.

4. Headlines are now stripped from your links

Now, when you input a link into your tweet (e.g., an article), the headline will not be displayed. The Verge has a pretty good “before and after” picture that illustrates this frustrating new feature.

This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2023

Musk, demonstrating his aptitude for crushing it at spelling bees, tweeted that he made this change to “improve the esthetics [sic].”

5. You must wait longer to open links from competitors

An analysis from The Markup discovered that X is throttling traffic from competitors, including Threads, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Substack.

This report isn’t surprising considering the fact that Musk briefly banned links from Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and other rivals in December 2022.

6. PlayStation and Xbox gamers lose integration with Twitter

Access to Twitter’s API used to be free, but as we reported in March, Musk is putting a price on it now — its cheapest package is a whopping $42,000 per month.

As a result, gaming platforms like Microsoft and Sony are terminating their integrations with X. In other words, gamers can no longer share their video game captures directly with Twitter / X.

7. The blue check is no longer earned

As CNN puts it, Musk transformed the blue check from a status symbol to a badge of shame.

The blue check once authenticated influential accounts and high-profile figures, but now, Musk has eroded its value. Anyone can purchase a blue check by subscribing to X Premium. However, it’ll cost you $16 a month as of this writing.

Final thoughts

This list is far from exhaustive — and it will continue to climb. Elon Musk said he will kill the block feature on X. Plus, Musk suggested that he may put X behind a paywall, too.

We can’t wrap our minds around Musk’s endgame for X, but as we discovered, it’s not looking good for the Tesla CEO so far. Daily active users appear to be dwindling as we speak.