X launches rebuilt Android app after year-long overhaul

X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, has launched a completely rebuilt Android application, marking a significant engineering milestone after nearly a year of development. The new app, available for download on the Google Play Store as of July 20, 2026, was built from the ground up to address longstanding performance issues that had made the Android version notably inferior to its iOS counterpart.

Nikita Bier, head of product at X, announced the release, describing it as one of the largest engineering projects in the company's history. He emphasized that the application was a complete rewrite, not merely an update, developed using modern technologies like Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. The company promises the new version is faster, smoother, and more reliable, with specific improvements to loading times, scrolling, and notifications.

The decision to prioritize a full rebuild followed years of neglect for the Android platform, during which the app suffered from severe performance problems. At one point last year, the app was so unstable it could not load posts when users clicked on links. A turning point came in October 2025, when X recorded one of its biggest weeks...