X Head of Product Nikita Bier Says Running Elon Musk's Platform Is a "24/7 Job" as He Steps Down "to Take a Breather"

A Fast-Paced Year Ends With a Leadership Change

After overseeing a year of rapid product updates at X, Nikita Bier has stepped down as the platform's head of product and will remain with the company as an adviser.

Announcing his departure, Bier wrote that it was "time to pass the torch and demote myself to my natural state: a poster."

He added that X "is, and will remain, the most important communication technology in history," but said running the platform is "a 24/7 job" and that it was time "to take a breather."

Bier took over the role in July 2025 after building the social apps tbh and Gas, both of which later became acquisition targets for major technology companies.

During his time at X, he said he oversaw the launch of nearly 30 new products while rebuilding key parts of the platform, including the timeline, Android app, notifications, onboarding and chat features.

What Changed Under Bier's Leadership

Bier described his year at X as an extensive rebuild of the platform.

Among the features introduced were Grok-powered custom timelines, a topic snooze tool, country-of-origin profile labels and updates to XChat, which he said briefly ranked ahead of ChatGPT and Claude on the App Store.

One pilot feature also integrated live market data into posts, with Bier saying it generated an estimated $1 billion in Cashtags trading volume within 48 hours.

As part of the leadership reshuffle, design chief Benji Taylor will oversee design, while iOS lead Jonah Katz and Mridul Singhai will take over product leadership responsibilities.

Did The Growth Match The Product Push

While Bier celebrated a year of rapid product launches, some of X's wider business figures painted a more mixed picture.

He claimed the platform climbed 70 places on the App Store over the past year, although that figure was his own assessment and depended on which ranking chart was used.

X currently ranks among the top free iPhone apps in the U.S., but sits lower on broader app rankings.

Other published figures also showed challenges.

SpaceX's May 2026 IPO filing listed X with 550 million monthly users in March, below the 600 million users previously claimed publicly by the company.

The same filing reported 2025 advertising revenue of $1.8 billion, compared with $4.4 billion in 2022 before Elon Musk acquired Twitter.

App analytics firm Appfigures also estimated that X recorded 104 million downloads during 2025, a 13% decline from the previous year.

Scandals Continued Alongside Product Updates

Bier's tenure also coincided with several high-profile controversies.

Just days after he became head of product, Grok attracted criticism after generating offensive content.

The chatbot later faced further scrutiny after users created non-consensual explicit images, including child sexual abuse material, leading to legal action against the platform.

Crypto users also accused X of limiting the reach of crypto-related posts after Bier became an adviser to Solana in March 2025.

He denied suppressing crypto content and instead blamed reply farming.

Regulators also turned their attention to X.

On 5 December, the European Commission fined the company €120 million ($139 million) under the Digital Services Act.

Bier responded by terminating the Commission's advertising account on the platform the following day.

With Bier moving into an advisory role after just over a year in charge, X now enters another leadership transition as the platform continues pursuing its ambitions in payments, trading and broader platform development.