X is looking to give users more room to explain themselves or their business, via an expanded bio section that’s currently in testing at the app.
As you can see in this example, shared by X News Daily, soon, users will be able to include more detail in their profile section, which profile visitors will then be able to access by a “View more” prompt beneath their initial bio summary.
That’ll provide more room to explain what your company is about, or provide insight into your personal mission statement, or publish your manifesto for life, etc.
It could also, eventually, lead to an even greater expanded presence, which incorporates shops, job listings, location info, etc., all in a bigger information panel.
There’s not a lot to go on at this stage, as it’s still in initial testing, but there are a range of possibilities for the extended display, which could help you drive more connections, and get more followers, by adding context.
It also aligns with X’s broader push to get more long-form type content into the app, growing beyond its short-form content roots.
X has already added longer posts, and longer video uploads, in the hopes of enticing more people to upload more original content to the app. A longer profile bio is another step, while also, as noted, linking into its expanded utility and functionality, in various ways.
It remains to be seen whether users actually want to see long-form content in the app, though longer tweets are now fairly common, and it doesn’t seem to have impacted engagement.
At least, that’s based on X’s reports, which suggest that “cumulative user-seconds” have continued to touch on all-time highs in the app throughout this year. What exactly that means, in terms of specific usage trends, is not entirely clear (cumulative seconds could mean that a group of users are spending more time on X, but individual usage numbers may have declined), but either way, X is touting this as an endorsement of its new direction, and by any measure, it would suggest that long-form content isn’t hurting overall engagement.
Maybe, then, this is the way, and by expanding the app’s utility, Elon Musk will be able to convert X into his grand “everything app” vision.
Longer profile bios are just another step in the larger journey in this respect.