X has launched a rewritten web app that it says performs significantly faster than its previous version. The company is rolling out the updated app to signed-in users one country at a time, while already deploying it for logged-out users and search engine crawlers.
Principal engineer Yagiz Nizipli detailed the performance gains in a blog post. Opening a profile on a slow connection took more than 22 seconds on the old web app before the first post appeared. The new version shows a post in 2.7 seconds. The rewrite consolidates three separate servers that previously handled user pages, search crawlers, and link previews into a single server, according to Nizipli.
Security researcher Jane Manchun Wong said she had access to the updated app and described it as "snappy" with fast loading times and polished elements.