Tell HN: X is opening any tweet link in a webview whether you press it or not

80•stillatit•5h ago

Just saw the CEO of Substack celebrating traffic from X/Twitter shooting up thinking they stopped suppressing tweets with links[0]. Actually, this traffic is because now any time you open a tweet with a link, the in-app webview loads in the background, and displays when you press the link.

I run an ecom store that gets a lot of its customers from Twitter. I was also shocked to see my traffic double or triple overnight and thought the algorithm had blessed me and my business. Soon realized what was actually happening. Thought other traffic-monitors might appreciate this explanation.

Meanwhile Nikita Bier is pretending they never suppressed tweets with links to begin with, offering the alternative explanation: "a common complaint is that posts with links tend to get lower reach. This is because the web browser covers the post and people forget to Like or Reply. So X doesn't get a clear signal whether the content is any good"[1]. A bit of a rewriting of history since Elon and his mom both tweeted about how it wasn't fair to use his platform to promote other links/platforms, even banning people who shared profiles of other social networks (including Paul Graham for a period). They suppressed all links shortly after.

[0] https://x.com/cjgbest/status/1985464687350485092

[1] https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1979994223224209709

Comments

braza•4h ago

I understand the rationale and I am happy for the authors and I think the distribution will be way better.

As a user I like to get out as soon as I click because I can trace back the link and I can do clipping or bookmark in my browser.

pavelai•4h ago

It seems like they changed the strategy and enhanced UX. Feels like now there would a lot of worthless traffic in the web

saagarjha•4h ago

I’m just happy they got rid of the system web view and replaced it with the one which they can inject their own JavaScript into. Bonus points that it covers the thing I want to read and I can’t turn it off. Truly, a masterpiece of engineering from the guy whose entire schtick was coming up with was to boost engagement from kids.

est•4h ago

That's precisely what Wechat is doing. Most chinese "mega apps" do this.

Elon absolutely on his track to copy this important feature [1]

The webview works as a traffic faucet. Elon can turn it on or off for every third-party site, you know, for "Internet safety".

My take:

Next step is X.com proprietary APIs inside the Webview, like payment and everything.

The ultimate goal is a "mini-app" framework that use PWA-like techs to run everything based on the Webview and circumvent Appstore.

And last a phone that runs the "mini-app" framework because why not, as an "AI edge node" like Elon recently proposed.

[1]: https://x.com/danmurrays/status/1683446630245187584

ojr•4h ago

the webview messes up tokens and passwords managers so I don't see this happening. The US is too culturally different to have mega apps. In Asia their supermarkets also have a lot of information in the menu for example.

gip•4h ago

Totally. Mini apps and mini-app stores are already developing in crypto (Farcaster, World,..) and the approach may well become the primary way to deploy advanced and secure apps going forward.

isodev•3h ago

Who in their right mind would give X/Elon money or even enable photos or contacts access on their phone. At some point is just another money laundering thing for our (least) favourite billionaire.

scuff3d•3h ago

If there was ever a good reason to stop using Twitter, this is it.

input_sh•3h ago

I don't think this would even make it into top 10 good reasons to stop using Twitter.

scuff3d•3h ago

A crazy ass billionaire trying to develop an "everything" app seems like a pretty damn good reason to run the other direction. I wouldn't want anyone controlling an app like that, much less Elon fucking Musk.

est•2h ago

the same story applies to Wechat. Pony Ma was crazy rich for QQ and games already, he created another Wechat. Lots of ppl tried to boycott it, but network effect forced everyone to use it.

robot-wrangler•4h ago

Since we're doing PSAs, isn't it also now just a completely broken platform on mobile for everyone who isn't logged in?

> Something went wrong, but don't fret - let's give it another shot.

This is all I've seen for literally years now. No real error, does not even say to login or install an app, just blames it on my privacy extensions (I don't actually have any) and offers a button to pointlessly try again. No big loss, but surprising! On the one hand, it's the only time big tech isn't engaged in obnoxious harassment, but it's also a conspicuously dumb oversight in the funnel

teiferer•3h ago

Always been like that. Twitter, Instagram, ... None of those platforms have usable UX if you're not logged in.

davedx•3h ago

False. You used to be able to read Twitter fine without being logged in

teiferer•3h ago

When was that? Already pre-Elon it was terrible.

input_sh•3h ago

Come on, pre-Elon you could click on a Twitter link and read the entire thread as well as the replies, now you just get a single tweet with no context above/below.

And if you click on an account you just get top posts of all time instead of a chronological feed, so it's impossible to even find the context while being logged off.

Zolomon•3h ago

This is not true, this change is a recent phenomenon, I believe it came into effect sometime around 2021-2023 (maybe earlier even). I believe it changed when OpenAI showed the value of data.

Before, there was no problem using Instagram or Twitter while not logged in. Now there is a dark pattern that forces you to create an account, or log in.

hnlmorg•3h ago

People already knew the value of data long before LLMs were popularised and web scraping has been a thing since the very beginnings of the web.

Why you’re describing isn’t a recent phenomenon. Not even remotely.

Facebook has never allowed people read only views to their platform. And Expert Stack Overflow like Quora used the same dark patterns you described too.

mattmanser•3h ago

Instagram's been a pita to use without a login for years, they've recently got even worse though.

agos•3h ago

Instagram explicitly tells you need to be logged in. Twitter/X just appears to be broken

robot-wrangler•3h ago

Obviously wrong. The typical user-hostile thing isn't this dumb, you'd see a teaser that's probably vaguely sexual and get some "sign up for the full experience" prodding. Literally any 2-person startup that's a week old would do better than this at being thirsty and awful

gethly•3h ago

Twitter never worked on my on desktop without account since Elon took over. It came down to security settings not allowing 3rd party cookies. If you allow it, it loads up.

jonway•3h ago

change the url to xcancel.com

dagurp•3h ago

or nitter.net

agos•3h ago

remember when part of the commentary was "ha! twitter fired one bajllion people and it's still operating fine". I keep seeing errors, much more than in the flying whale era, just now they appear to be in the frontend.

defraudbah•3h ago

[flagged]

blikdak•3h ago

What bugs me is the sheer number of people, and organisations, who still link to images and video or '1/20' long screeds on twitter, while the next article on their own site is bitching about how bad twatter/owner/politics etc is. Seriously if a site, blog, forum etc you know ever links to twitter then just stop interaction with them, they're lazy mofos need to do their own groundwork.

gcr•3h ago

Does this mean an attacker can turn any impression into any GET request?

stillatit•2h ago

Not sure how much of an attack that is. FWIW the preloading is nice as a user.

lysp•1h ago

Is the request coming from the user's IP or via a Twitter proxy?

As a plain webview would mean that you can grab everyone's details.

You can't cURL a Border

What Is a Manifold?

Some software bloat is OK

Things you can do with diodes

My Truck Desk

AI's Dial-Up Era

Bloom filters are good for search that does not scale

When stick figures fought

Reverse-engineered CUPS driver for Phomemo receipt/label printers

A friendly tour of process memory on Linux

Pain Points of OCaml

Lessons from interviews on deploying AI Agents in production

Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025)

Learning to read Arthur Whitney's C to become smart (2024)

Tenacity – a multi-track audio editor/recorder

Show HN: Yourshoesmells.com – Find the most smelly boulder gym

The Mack Super Pumper was a locomotive engined fire fighter (2018)

Guideline has been acquired by Gusto

The Case That A.I. Is Thinking

Ask HN: How to deal with long vibe-coded PRs?

Inside an Isotemp OCXO107-10 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator

The Case Against PGVector

State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

Resolution limit of the eye – how many pixels can we see?

Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (November 2025)

How to Draw a Tetrapod

First recording of a dying human brain shows waves similar to memory flashbacks (2022)

A visualization of the RGB space covered by named colors

Gallery of wonderful drawings our little thermal printer received

WebAssembly (WASM) arch support for the Linux kernel