quick proof they’re doing this
Jake Gold@jacob.gold· 4 Nov 2025Looks like X is juicing web visit numbers by opening a browser WebView in the background whether the user visits the link or not.
They've re-invented pop-under fraud (allegedly).
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4580...
![Tell HN: X is opening any tweet link in a webview whether you press it or not
247 points by stillatit 10 hours ago | hide | past | favorite | 200 comments
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](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tpg43qhh4lw4ksiffs4nbda3/bafkreia62cq7p2dn2o76cjuuzl5dpwaatnf5m5cl5bm7lmoprsavebgl4q "Tell HN: X is opening any tweet link in a webview whether you press it or not
247 points by stillatit 10 hours ago | hide | past | favorite | 200 comments
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")
anyway found a nasty little crash caused by sparse arrays and implicit reliance on the order of things rendering
Prevent sparse arrays in snapToOffsets by mozzius · Pull Request #9329 · bluesky-social/social-app
I accidentally introduced something quite stupid in #7128 - it would lay out all the interest tabs, and then when all the tabs had been all laid out, it would set the offsets to snapToOffsets. Howe...
github.com
Fix deployed! You may need to restart your app
Samuel@samuel.fm· 28 Oct 2025we're aware of an issue with the image viewer when the Reduce Motion setting is enabled. working on a fix now :)
Samuel@samuel.fm· 28 Oct 2025ok there we go. idk why this suddenly started breaking but a fix is a fix
Override Reduce Motion on load-bearing animation by mozzius · Pull Request #9294 · bluesky-social/social-app
Fixes #9292
When the Reduce Motion a11y setting is enabled and the app is running in --no-dev (i.e. in prod), the lightbox fly away animation gets frozen in place.
Seems like after the fly-away is ...
github.com
we're aware of an issue with the image viewer when the Reduce Motion setting is enabled. working on a fix now :)
2 4 35
ok there we go. idk why this suddenly started breaking but a fix is a fix
Override Reduce Motion on load-bearing animation by mozzius · Pull Request #9294 · bluesky-social/social-app
Fixes #9292
When the Reduce Motion a11y setting is enabled and the app is running in --no-dev (i.e. in prod), the lightbox fly away animation gets frozen in place.
Seems like after the fly-away is ...
github.com
oh the most important change is that I reduced the font size of primary post in a thread so it's no longer horrendously large
3 3 55lemme know if you have any bugs with this one! put a lot of work into stability this time, should be less crashy
Bluesky@bsky.app· 27 Oct 2025v1.109 is rolling out today! #NewProfilePic
We've given the app a mini makeover with some new shades of blues! Plus, a whole bunch of bug fixes and performance improvements to make your experience better.
