Updated

Updated · TechCrunch · Jul 20

X Relaunches Android App After 1 Year, Promising Faster Performance and New Features

Updated

Updated · TechCrunch · Jul 20

X Relaunches Android App After 1 Year, Promising Faster Performance and New Features

Q: Is fixing the Android app just the first step in Musk's ambitious plan to turn X into a global 'super app'?

Probably not the first step, but it is a foundational one. Musk’s ambition to turn X into an “everything app” or global super app has been clear for some time, and the stronger evidence of that strategy is X Money — the company’s payments and banking push, including peer-to-peer transfers, a debit card and stored balances. That is much closer to the classic super-app model than a mobile performance overhaul. Still, rebuilding Android matters strategically because Android is X’s biggest gateway to global scale. Android accounts for the majority of smartphones worldwide, especially in emerging markets where a super app would need broad reach. X’s old Android app had become a liability, with years of neglect, bugs and slower feature rollouts than iOS. That hurt installs, retention and likely subscription growth. The rewrite therefore looks less like the opening move of the super-app plan than necessary infrastructure for it. X head of product Nikita Bier has said the rebuild should end Android’s feature lag and allow launches on Android at or near the same time as iOS. That is important if X wants to roll out payments, creator tools, video features and other services globally without splitting its user base by platform. So the Android fix is best seen as an enabling step: not the clearest sign of the super-app vision itself, but a prerequisite for making that vision work at worldwide scale.

2 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Jul 20

Monday’s release puts X’s rebuilt Android app into users’ hands after nearly a year of development, replacing a version the company said had lagged badly behind iOS.
Built from scratch, the new app is meant to improve loading, scrolling and notifications while giving X a faster base for shipping future features, according to product head Nikita Bier.
Bier called the overhaul one of X’s largest engineering projects, but said work is still underway on performance for older Android devices and support for Spaces.
Android users are getting the update through Google Play now, with video editing, react-with-video, cashtags and custom timelines still slated to arrive later.
The relaunch could help X regain users in Android-heavy global markets after years of neglect, including periods last year when some links would not load posts at all.