X topic
Twitter New Features and Updates: Dated Timeline
Twitter new features and updates are easiest to follow as dated changes with a named source. This topic gathers what Wikipedia and X Help say about every change since the 2023 rebrand, then sets out three alternative platforms. No article in this topic is published yet. Two are planned. They cover one on Twitter new features and updates and one on where Twitter is headed. We have not tested any feature in the app ourselves.
Twitter New Features Timeline
Most dates below come from Wikipedia's article on X. It cites news reports and company posts. We did not check every original.
| Date | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2023 | X Corp. takes over from Twitter, Inc. | Wikipedia |
| 23 Jul 2023 | Rebrand to X takes effect | Wikipedia |
| 5 Aug 2023 | X Blue renamed X Premium | Wikipedia |
| Nov 2023 | Premium+ adds an ad free feed | Wikipedia |
| 17 May 2024 | Web address moves to x.com | Wikipedia |
| Mar 2025 | xAI acquires X Corp. | Wikipedia |
| Feb 2026 | SpaceX acquires xAI | Wikipedia |
| 27 Jul 2026 | X Money rollout starts in the US | Dealroom |
The X Money row is Dealroom's account of reports by The Verge and TechCrunch. It says Premium and Premium+ subscribers get it first, with a wallet, person to person payments and a Visa debit card. We could not read X's own help article for it.
Premium and Creator Changes
US prices in the Premium material are $3 a month for Basic, $8 for Premium and $40 for Premium+. Longer posts of up to 4,000 characters come with Premium plans. Creator payouts changed in 2026. X Help says Revenue Sharing stopped taking new members on 7 August 2026 and Original Content Rewards replaces it. Our make money on Twitter topic covers the dates and rules. Business accounts have their own tiers, which our Twitter for business topic sets out.
Chat and Messaging Changes
Chat is one of the Twitter new features in this timeline. X Help describes it as an end to end encrypted messaging feature. It gives no launch date. It lists group messages, disappearing messages, unsending and voice notes. It also lists limits:
- Metadata like the recipient and creation time is not encrypted
- Chat is not forward secure, so past messages on a compromised device could be decrypted
- Content sent to Grok through Ask Grok is no longer encrypted
Message requests to nonfollowers are unencrypted until accepted. They are capped every 24 hours by plan.
| Plan | Requests a day |
|---|---|
| Free | 7 |
| Premium | 35 |
| Premium Plus | 75 |
| Premium Business | 500 |
Policy and Regulation Changes
Wikipedia reports these changes. They are listed with its wording and not checked against primary documents.
- The recommendation algorithm's source code was published on GitHub on 31 March 2023
- The 2019 ban on political ads was reversed in August 2023
- The European Commission fined X €120 million under the Digital Services Act in December 2025
- French authorities raided X offices in February 2026
The same article says the algorithm repository was updated in January 2026 to rely on an external large language model. We read no X statement on that change.
Where Twitter is Headed
No source we read forecasts a direction, so we state none. X publishes no statistics on active accounts. The latest figure we found is the 600 million monthly users Elon Musk gave in May 2024, as Wikipedia records it. Wikipedia also says X's mobile usage has declined in 2026 and that Threads usage matched X's in January 2026. We found no audited number behind either claim.
Alternative Platforms Compared
Wikipedia describes three microblogging services that people tried after the changes above. Every figure counts something different.
| Platform | How it works | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Threads | Meta service linked to Instagram | 400 million monthly users, Aug 2025 |
| Bluesky | Open AT Protocol | 45 million registered, Jun 2026 |
| Mastodon | Servers linked by ActivityPub | 10 million registered, Mar 2023 |
Bluesky gained over 4 million users in under two weeks in August 2024, after X was blocked in Brazil, says Wikipedia. Our Other Platforms hub tables the Threads and Bluesky figures. Bluesky Statistics by Date and Instagram Threads cover them further. Mastodon is not in that section yet.
What is Still Unconfirmed
Most rows rest on Wikipedia, so check the original post or help article before you rely on one. The help articles for X Money and The X Subscription failed to load for our tools. The Chat article and the Original Content Rewards article carry no publish date. We read no test of any alternative platform. We have not used the newest features ourselves, so nothing here is Tested.
Where This Topic Fits
This topic sits inside our X (Twitter) section, next to Twitter for Business: Accounts, Premium Business and DMs. A piece appears here the day it goes live and is marked Tested or Checked, as our editorial policy explains. Changes are logged on our change log. Namrata Arora edits this section. To look up a term, use the social media glossary or our site search.
Sources: Wikipedia on X, X Help on Chat, X Help on Premium, X Help on Original Content Rewards, Dealroom on X Money, Wikipedia on Bluesky and Wikipedia on Mastodon.
FAQ
What are the Twitter new features?
No single official list exists that we could read. The dated changes we found include Premium plans, a paid creator program, end to end encrypted Chat and X Money. Every one is in the timeline above with its source.
Where is Twitter headed?
No source we read forecasts it. Wikipedia reports that ownership changed again in 2025 and 2026 and that mobile usage has declined. X publishes no active account statistics, so we state no direction.
What are the alternatives to Twitter?
Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon are the three microblogging services we compared. Every one counts users differently, so the figures cannot be ranked. Our table shows what every one counts.