X is piloting a new transparency tool called Under the Hood that lets eligible users see whether visibility-related labels have been applied to their accounts or posts.
The social media giant introduced the tool on August 13, along with the release of a much larger portion of the code behind its For You feed, including details about how posts are ranked and filtered.
The news will likely come as a relief for X users who’ve wondered whether the platform was limiting the reach of their posts or if they’d been shadowbanned.
With Under the Hood, eligible users can now see whether X’s own systems are affecting how many people see their posts. That means they’ll no longer have to connect their account to third-party apps that claim to detect shadowbanning.
If you’re an X user eager to take a look at the numbers behind your account, you may have to wait a while. That’s because the pilot is only available to a randomized group of test accounts for now.
To qualify for the pilot, you must have posted at least 10 times in the past month, and your account must be at least one year old.
If you meet those requirements and are invited to participate, you’ll be able to see which labels X has applied to your account and posts and how they may affect visibility.
Under the Hood Can Show Restrictions, Doesn’t Explain Every Drop
If you were hoping to get a detailed explanation of why your reach has dropped, Under the Hood may disappoint.
X’s recommendation and moderation systems use a complicated mix of signals to determine which posts users get to see, and Under the Hood can only tell you whether certain visibility-related labels have been applied to your account or posts.
So, if you’re actively being penalized by the algorithm, X will now let you know. But if the problem is that your posting just isn’t very good, you won’t get much in the way of feedback to improve it.
Even with those limitations, Under the Hood gives users something X’s open-source code doesn’t: information they can actually use to understand what the platform has done to their own posts.
X isn’t the only social media platform making changes to how much insight users get into the reach of their posts.
Instagram lets users check whether their content is eligible to appear in recommendations. Similarly, TikTok notifies users when posts or accounts become ineligible for recommendation in the For You feed.
Platforms embracing more transparency is a good thing for users. For too long, social media platforms have dramatically reduced a post’s audience without removing it and have kept users completely in the dark.
That left many users wondering if their post had simply underperformed or if the platform was actively limiting them.
Risk of More Posters Attempting to Game the System
Tools like Under the Hood give users more information about what’s happening with their content and make it harder for platforms to quietly shadowban users without letting them know that their visibility has been limited.
Of course, there are still limits. X still controls what information users can see, and knowing which label affected your post won’t necessarily explain why it was applied or how much reach it cost you.
There is also one fairly obvious downside of the new system, which is that not every user will make use of the data in good faith. This sort of visibility could encourage some users to spend even more time trying to reverse-engineer the algorithm and push the boundaries of content that would get them slapped with a shadow ban.
Nonetheless, most users would probably agree that we’re better off knowing when a platform has intervened rather than being left to guess why our posts aren’t reaching our intended audience.
If tools like Under the Hood become standard across social media, transparency around post reach could become something users expect, rather than something platforms share when they choose to.
Also in Consumer Tech News
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Spotify Adds Another Major Partner for Its AI Remix Tool
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Google TV Freeplay Adds More Than 10,000 Free Movies and Shows
If you use Google TV on a smart TV or streaming device, you now have thousands more things to watch without paying for another streaming service.
On August 11, Google announced that it had expanded Google TV Freeplay to include more than 10,000 on-demand movies and TV shows. Before this week’s expansion, Google TV had mostly focused on live programming, and Google says it now also offers more than 300 free live channels.
The on-demand catalog includes content from studios such as A24 and Lionsgate, including titles like Lady Bird. New live channels include Bloomberg TV+, Yahoo! Sports Network, World of Love Island, and The Martha Stewart Channel.
The tradeoff for all that free content is ads, which are what keep Freeplay free. It’s also currently limited to Google TV devices in the U.S. and requires a Google account and an internet connection. Google says it will continue refreshing the on-demand library throughout the year.
Originally published by Techopedia on August 14, 2026, as part of the Techopedia Consumer Report series.