X would like you to pay to promote your posts. And if you've managed to ignore the button offering that option, a giant hand may soon point it out for you.
Users across the Elon Musk-owned social media platform have been sharing screenshots of a hand appearing while they compose posts, directing their attention toward the Promote button. The animation is hard to miss, which appears to be the point.
"I just went to write a tweet and a massive hand popped up pointing to the promote button," The Verge’s Tom Warren wrote on X on Oct. 26.
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The button offers paid promotion, allowing users to spend money to get their posts in front of more people. X already offers tools for promoting posts without setting up an advertising campaign.
The hand is a particularly literal way of drawing attention to them. And it’s certainly getting noticed.
"Jumpscared the shit out of me," wrote one user. Another wrote, "I thought I’d been hacked!" describing his rather seasonal experience: "I wish I could explain how jarring this hand and animation was in the X app. It was truly shocking, almost like a Halloween gag, but I'm pretty sure it was real. I guess I see the promote button now."
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Others were less concerned with the hand's appearance than with where it was pointing. "The fact that it’s pointing at promote and not post is the real comedy here," wrote one user. Another account described the experience as getting "physically assaulted by the algorithm into buying ads." One put it plainly: "This should somehow be illegal."
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One startled user tagged @X and @grok to ask, "What is that hand? Is this a Halloween thing?" Grok replied, describing it as a new prompt encouraging users to pay for extra reach, adding that it was "Not confirmed as a Halloween prank, though the timing makes it feel like one."
That hand is a new X compose-screen nudge. A realistic (sometimes animated) arm pops up while drafting to point at the Promote button, encouraging you to boost the post for extra reach. It started rolling out in the last day or so and has jumped out at lots of people. Not confirmed as a Halloween prank, though the timing makes it feel like one. - Grok
One iOS user said the hand was more than a static graphic. "It’s animated, and you can move it around," they wrote, adding, "Hopefully it’s just a one-time popup."
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TBPN president Dylan Abruscato also shared his surprise at an arm appearing just as he was about to post. He called it the "most Nikita-coded thing I’ve ever seen," referring to the growth tactics associated with X's former product chief, Nikita Bier.
"So obstructive, yet so effective," Abruscato added.
The hand’s appearance coincides with a leadership change at X. Peter Sellis, a former product executive at Snapchat and Discord, announced on Oct. 26 that he was joining the company to lead product. (He hasn’t said whether he had a hand in this particular update. Get it?)
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It’s also unclear how widely the hand is appearing. One Android user said they hadn’t encountered it. Another user said it disappeared before they could capture it.
For now, the hand has succeeded in getting people to post about the Promote button. Getting them to actually pay to use it might require a different, more subtle approach.
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