X has updated its recommendation algorithm to increase the visibility of posts from users' mutual followers, as the social media platform seeks to make conversations feel more community-focused.

The change was announced on July 13 by Nikita Bier, X's head of product, who said the platform had identified a gap in its recommendation system that reduced the prominence of replies from people who both follow a user and are followed back.

"We noticed this data was missing from the algo and it made your friends appear less in your replies. This resulted in the reply section feeling more like a battleground with people you don't recognise," Bier wrote in a post on X.

According to Bier, the update is intended to make discussions feel more familiar by giving greater visibility to posts from mutual connections. Earlier this year, the company revised its creator payment programme to place greater emphasis on original content rather than reposted material. More recently, it introduced a built-in video editing tool.