X’s AI Custom Feeds: First Look & Hands-On Review

X is rolling out a significant new feature for its Premium subscribers, introducing Grok-powered Custom Timelines that allow users to curate their experience around specific interests. This move, which the company calls one of its biggest app changes, arrives as X simultaneously shuts down its underused X Communities feature. The new system uses artificial intelligence to generate and personalize feeds for over 75 distinct topics, which users can pin directly to their home tab for quick access.

Unlike traditional methods that rely on keywords or hashtags, Grok’s AI models analyze and understand the content of each post to apply relevant topic labels. This deep integration is facilitated by xAI, the company that acquired X last year, further linking the two entities. According to X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, these timelines perform especially well for topics a user already engages with regularly. Initially, the feature is exclusive to Premium subscribers on iOS, with Android support currently in development.

Accessing the tool is straightforward. Users scroll past their standard “For You” and “Following” feeds, tap a plus sign, and select from the available topics to pin. A maximum of ten topics or lists can be pinned at once, and their order can be rearranged. Once set up, these custom feeds become tappable shortcuts on the home tab across platforms. Notably, early use shows ads appearing prominently in the second position of each feed, a potential strategy to bolster X’s advertising inventory amid reported struggles in its ad business.

The available categories are extensive, covering broad areas similar to a news website’s sections. Core topics include Business & Finance, Technology, Politics, News, and Science. Sports enthusiasts can follow a general feed or dive into specifics like soccer, basketball, or Formula 1. Pop culture and music categories are well-represented, and there are dedicated feeds for perennially popular platform subjects like Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency. Additional interests span anime, digital art, career, pets, and mental health.

Some choices in the news category have drawn attention, with Iran Conflict, Crime, and Elections listed prominently at launch. While this may reflect current platform conversations, it also highlights how product design influences visibility. A more neutral organizational structure could allow for a wider array of news topics beyond these three. Furthermore, the reliance on Grok raises questions, as the AI, designed to be politically neutral, has faced criticism for sometimes skewing right or spreading misinformation.

In practical testing, however, the curated feeds appeared balanced, pulling content from a diverse range of outlets such as ABC, Reuters, AP, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera, alongside commentary from various pundits. It is unclear if these custom feeds will fundamentally alter user behavior, as many people prefer their main algorithmic feed to surface relevant content automatically. Yet, they offer a valuable tool for exploring new interests or checking specific topics on demand, like a sports feed during a big game. Combined with features like “Snooze Topics” for the main feed, users now have more precise controls to tailor their X experience.