X Crowns Its First ‘Certified Bangers’

After teasing it last week, X has officially rolled out its new “Bangers” initiative — a monthly promotion designed to celebrate top-performing creators by awarding a special “Bangers” badge to posts that drive the most “authentic interactions.” As explained by X: “We want to recognize the very best posts that move the timeline, ranked by authentic interactions. If your post is featured, you will get a Certified Banger badge on your profile for the month.” In simple terms, the program aims to spotlight the most engaging posts on the platform each month, with the creators of those posts receiving a trophy icon beside their usernames — the “Certified Banger” badge.  It’s a concept similar to Instagram’s “Rings” awards, which grant select creators profile embellishments as recognition for standout content. X’s approach is more subtle, using a small trophy emoji, but the goal is the same — to give creators a visual mark of distinction and drive more attention to high-performing posts. The idea is solid enough. But when you take a look at the first batch of official “Certified Bangers” for October, the execution leaves something to be desired. Let’s just say the definition of a “banger” here is… open to interpretation. Several of the chosen posts are simply open-ended questions that racked up large numbers of replies. They certainly generated engagement, but calling them “bangers” might be a stretch. Others, while popular, don’t necessarily stand out as particularly creative or culturally significant.  If these are supposed to represent the best content X has to offer — out of hundreds of millions of daily posts — it doesn’t exactly paint a promising picture for the app’s broader cultural resonance. To be fair, brand accounts aren’t eligible for Bangers recognition, which narrows the pool considerably and ensures only individual creators are featured. But the real flaw seems to lie in the criteria itself. As X explains: “Bangers will be ranked by the sum of authentic interactions, which includes verified impressions, likes, bookmarks, reposts and replies.” That last part — verified impressions — is key. Since only a small fraction of X’s user base (estimated at under 1%) subscribes to X Premium, the program is essentially measuring engagement from a very limited and self-selecting subset of users. Moreover, it appears that only posts from paying users are even being considered for inclusion — while not officially stated, every post selected so far comes from a blue-check account. This means that the so-called “bangers” largely reflect what the platform’s most invested — and often Musk-aligned — users find interesting, rather than what resonates across X’s wider community. As a result, each month’s Bangers list risks looking like a collection of middling jokes and low-effort posts that happen to land well within that small circle of paying users. Still, it’s something. X is clearly experimenting with new ways to reward creators and spark engagement — though it’s fair to say this version doesn’t quite hit the mark yet. Perhaps with some refinement — like broadening the eligibility criteria or factoring in non-premium engagement — the “Bangers” badge could become a more meaningful indicator of cultural relevance on X. But for now, it feels more like a novelty than a true celebration of the best content the platform has to offer. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!

YouTube is introducing new tools aimed at boosting visibility for emerging creators — and at the same time, improving navigation for paying subscribers who want easier access to the content they’ve purchased. First, YouTube is expanding its “Hype” program, adding a new feature that lets users who’ve given “Hype” to a video spotlight that clip in a separate post. For context, the Hype program allows viewers to support eligible videos by allocating Hype points — purchased directly in the app — which help those videos gain greater exposure on YouTube.  Now, beyond just assigning points, users will also be able to share their hyped content publicly, through posts visible to both their channel community and their “Posts” tab.  As shown in the example, this new function gives users an additional way to promote creators they admire — effectively turning Hype into a two-tier amplification tool that not only boosts content algorithmically but also socially, via personal endorsements. To complement this, YouTube has also rolled out Hype leaderboards across several topic categories — such as gaming, beauty, and more — allowing viewers to easily discover trending and rising creators within specific niches. It’s worth noting that Hype is still limited to select regions for now, but YouTube has confirmed plans for broader expansion in the near future. The program remains mobile-only at this stage, though a desktop version is reportedly on the way. On another front, YouTube is also refining user experience with new “Members only” and “Public” filters for videos, Shorts, and live streams within a channel’s content tabs. Previously, the only sorting options available were “Latest,” “Popular,” and “Oldest.” The addition of these new filters helps paying subscribers quickly locate the exclusive content they’ve unlocked, while letting casual viewers focus solely on what’s publicly available. As YouTube explained: “The members filter helps members quickly find the content they’ve purchased, and the public filter displays only public content, excluding members-only content, allowing all viewers to easily browse content they have access to.” In short, for paying subscribers, this means less friction in finding what they’ve paid for — and for creators, it offers another small but meaningful way to strengthen their relationship with their most loyal supporters. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!

In what feels like a symbolic farewell to the era of social media “Likes,” Meta has announced that it will officially retire the Facebook Like and Comment buttons for third-party websites — long-standing fixtures that once defined how people interacted with online content. You know the ones: those familiar Facebook buttons that appeared across blogs and news sites, allowing users to react or comment on an article without ever leaving the page — much like the Facebook Share icon sitting atop this post. And if you remember the older versions, you’re not alone. Many websites still have them embedded today. But come February next year, they’ll vanish entirely, as Meta plans to discontinue support for both functions. As Meta explained in its announcement: “On February 10, the plugins will gracefully degrade by rendering as a 0x0 pixel (invisible element) rather than causing errors or breaking your website functionality. This change is intended to only remove the plugin content from your site and should not otherwise impact your website’s functionality.” In simpler terms, nothing on your website will break — the buttons will just quietly disappear, leaving behind a cleaner page. Meta says the decision comes as the tools’ usage “has naturally declined as the digital landscape has evolved.” And that’s hardly surprising. The concept of “Liking” content has become less meaningful in the age of algorithmic feeds. Social platforms now rely far more on behavioral signals — what you watch, linger on, or scroll past — than on active likes or comments. TikTok led that transformation, shifting the focus from who you follow to what you engage with. Its “For You” feed revolutionized discovery, making direct engagement far less necessary. Following TikTok’s lead, nearly every major platform has embraced a similar model, curating endless, personalized feeds rather than relying on traditional follower networks. As a result, the need to manually “Like” things has steadily faded, and so has the value of embedding those buttons on external sites. Facebook itself, while still home to billions of users, no longer sits at the center of people’s online social habits. The platform has evolved — and external engagement simply doesn’t carry the same weight it once did. Still, this marks a notable moment — an end of an era, signaling just how far the social web has shifted since Facebook’s golden age of “Like” culture. According to Meta, these plugins will stop rendering on websites after February 10, 2026. Webmasters can remove the plugin code for tidiness or simply leave it as is and let the buttons fade away on their own. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!