Elon Musk’s platform X has started releasing a new feature that adds extra information to user profiles, including the account’s location, how many times the username has been changed, the original join date, and how the user downloaded the X app.
The goal is to reduce fake or misleading activity, especially at a time when AI makes it harder to identify bots pretending to be real people.
X first revealed plans for this feature in October, when the company’s head of product, Nikita Bier, said it would begin testing the idea on his own account and those of X employees. By showing more background details, the company hopes users will be able to judge more easily whether an account looks genuine or could be a bot or someone trying to spread misinformation. For example, if someone claims to be based in a U.S. state but their account information shows they are somewhere else, that could be a warning sign.
Over the weekend, Bier replied to a user who asked Musk to make account locations visible by saying, “Give me 72 hours.” Soon after, more people began seeing the new “About this account” section appear on their profiles.
Users can view their own account information by clicking the “Joined” date on their profile in the X app or on the web. This page shows when the account was created, where it is based, the number of username changes and the date of the most recent one, and how the account first accessed X, such as through the Google Play Store or the U.S. App Store.
For now, some people can view this information on their own accounts, but TechCrunch reports that it cannot yet be seen on other users’ profiles. X may be allowing users some time to review their details and adjust their settings before making the feature widely visible.
Users can choose whether their profile shows their country or only a broader region, like a continent. This option was originally intended for areas where sharing precise location details could be risky, but even users in the United States can make the change. Country is the default setting.
To adjust these privacy options, users can open the “About your account” page under the “Privacy and Safety” settings in the X app. One reverse engineer also discovered code hinting at a possible future feature that warns others if a user is connected through a VPN. If released, this would inform viewers that the displayed location might not be accurate.
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X has not commented on the rollout publicly, but Bier has joked about the increasing number of people spotting the feature as it slowly becomes available. Instagram already offers a similar “About this account” tool, so X is not the first platform to introduce this type of transparency.
