How to configure X to take advantage of the latest improvements (without being devoured by chaos)

BarcelonaAgainst all odds, it turns out X is still working. The volume of relevant information it contains is enormous, if you know how to find it amidst the noise. And not only does it work: it also improves. The most recent novelty is the automatic translation of all tweets in the timeline, executed by Grok, the platform's own artificial intelligence (AI). This new system replaces the previous one, which was limited to offering a link to translate each tweet individually. Now the translation is immediate, integrated, and omnipresent. However, the activation was quite clumsy: without prior warning, suddenly tweets from half the world appeared in a different language than the one their authors had used to write them. The initial confusion is understandable, but we are already used to it: on X, first comes the chaos, then the solution.

The solution, in this case, is simple. In the user profile settings, you need to mark all the languages you understand —to prevent them from being translated— and confirm your own language. From that moment on, foreign tweets originally written in other languages will appear to you directly in Catalan. Since I configured it, I have been able to directly follow users of interest to me who tweet in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Hindi, and whom until now I only read when someone else I followed commented on them. Now there are no intermediaries, because access is direct. And Catalan, for the first time, acts as a lingua franca with the entire world.

Beyond demonstrating the practical potential of AI applied to daily communication, automatic translation is a good example of X's flexibility. The platform is, like the real world, a place full of undesirable people, undocumented individuals, and malicious people. But it also has numerous tools to avoid them, and here lies the difference between a disastrous and a useful experience. As I have explained on other occasions, the user experience on X can be pacified with adequate configuration. In addition to being selective about who we start following and relentless about unfollowing when they no longer interest us, the most important step is to avoid the manipulative algorithm that decides which tweets appear in our timeline: by choosing the Following option (and not the For You one), we will only see what the users we have decided to follow publish. This tab now includes a submenu to choose whether you prefer to see the most popular tweets first or the most recent ones, respecting the traditional reverse chronological order.

From here, other general restrictions can be activated: prevent us from being tagged in others' tweets; mute users, words, or tags; choose who can send us direct messages —what X now calls chats—; and reduce distractions by muting most mentions. In Settings > Notifications > Filters > Muted notifications, I have all of them disabled except for those from users I already follow. I don't want X to notify me of anything said by someone who hasn't even bothered to follow me. An asymmetry that seems reasonable to me, and that I recommend to anyone complaining about receiving insults from strangers. Most of X's problems are not caused by X: they are caused by the configuration decisions we have made —or have failed to make— ourselves.

In addition to these general restrictions, X allows applying them to each tweet we publish. In the contextual menu —the three dots at the top right, next to the Grok icon— there is the option Change who can reply. I usually choose Accounts you follow, which are already the ones I've decided to listen to. It's a strict setting, I admit. But both on X and on other networks, I apply two principles: on the one hand, I assume that everyone can say whatever they want to me without the platform censoring anyone, but also that I have no obligation to read it, let alone respond to it. On the other hand, since I don't use X to pass the time or make friends, but as a source of information and a dissemination channel, I seek maximum efficiency and minimum distraction.

Regarding content quality, X announced this very week that it will discourage the creation of garbage and clickbait content. X's head of product, Nikita Bier, explained that all aggregator profiles have had their remuneration reduced by 60% this month, and a further 20% cut is planned for next month. Furthermore, users who abuse the resource of classifying every tweet as breaking news, headed with the usual «BREAKING», will receive a permanent penalty. The platform reserves the right not to pay for the manipulation of its users, although it will not restrict the reach or visibility of penalized profiles.

; in the mobile app for Android, enabling tracking protection that includes However, if you choose well who you follow, X remains much more functional than any other social network. Don't get me started on Instagram, where you can't even include links in posts, or LinkedIn, where the culture of corporate flattery stifles any attempt at critical thinking. Neither of them, by the way, has Catalan among its interface languages. On the other hand, X respects linguistic diversity and offers the tools to personalize the experience to our liking.

You can even avoid advertising tweets. On the web version of X, accessing it with a secure browser like Brave; on the mobile app for Android, by activating the app tracking protection included in DuckDuckGo browser).

The shame is the number of users, companies, and institutions that left X with great fanfare at the time of Elon Musk's takeover. They did so by announcing it far and wide, and they turned their departure into a political and moral act. Everyone is free to do what they want with their digital tools, of course. But in practice, most of those who fled have not regained on alternative platforms, such as Bluesky, Mastodon, or Threads, the audience they had on X. And those of us who have stayed haven't missed them much either, because someone else has taken their place. Social networks, like other ecosystems, quickly fill the gaps left by those who leave.