Can you reset your Twitter algorithm?
Not in one tap. X's help pages on the For You timeline, recommendations and personalisation, checked on 4 November 2026, describe no button that wipes what X has learned about you. They describe a feed built from your own choices instead. X's page on its approach to recommendations lists signals including, but not limited to, interests you chose during onboarding, accounts and Topics you follow, posts you've liked, reposted, shared or replied to, media you've watched and content popular in your network. Its For You recommendations page adds that posts are ranked by a neural network continuously trained on your interactions.
X's open-source For You code shows why a reset takes time. The README says a model called Phoenix reads your recent engagement history, the main input to the model, and predicts what you will do with each post. The settings file caps that history at 1,024 items for ranking (checked 4 November 2026), and X says it runs scripts that set these defaults to its primary production values.
Which X controls change your For You feed?
Seven controls, each with a different job. The second column comes from X's help pages and the third from its published code, both checked 4 November 2026.
| Control | What X's help pages say | What the published code does | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Following tab | Posts only from accounts you follow, in reverse chronological order, not personalised | The repository covers For You only | A clean feed today |
| Not interested in this post | A signal to recommend less of that type of content | A negative action the ranking model predicts, weight -52.272 | Off-topic recommendations |
| Mute an account | Removes its posts from your timeline without unfollowing or blocking; the account isn't told | Posts from muted and blocked accounts are filtered out before scoring | People you must keep following, such as a client |
| Mute words and hashtags | Removes matching posts from your Home timeline and notifications, but not from search | Posts matching muted keywords are filtered out before scoring | A topic or event flooding the feed |
| Unfollow | Changing who you follow influences what X finds for you | Accounts you follow are the in-network source of posts | Accounts outside your market |
| Deselect interests | Opt out of Interests from X in Your X data | Followed topics are among the inputs gathered for each For You request; the README doesn't mention inferred interests | Interests X guessed wrongly |
| Block | Blocked accounts can't follow you or see your posts | Filtered out before scoring, like mutes | Abuse, not tuning |
The code also predicts how likely you are to mute an author (weight -58.8), block one (-31.2) or report a post (-234). X's README warns that these are not exchange rates: each weight multiplies your own predicted probability of that action, "substantially driven by your own behavior". Our post on the mutual follow boost and the positive weights covers the other side of the scoring.
How do I reset my X feed, step by step?
These steps are from X's help pages as they read on 4 November 2026, with the devices each one covers.
Switch to Following
Click or swipe between the For you and Following tabs. X reopens whichever tab you had open when you closed it, according to its For you timeline page.
Mute the words that flood your feed
On desktop: More, Settings and privacy, Privacy and safety, Mute and block, Muted words, then the plus icon. On iOS: Notifications tab, gear icon, Muted, Muted words, Add. On Android: Notifications tab, gear icon, Muted words, plus icon. Add one word or hashtag at a time, choose Home timeline, Notifications or both, and pick Forever, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days. X's muting options page says muting a word also mutes its hashtag, and muting ignores capital letters.
Mute accounts you can't unfollow
Tap or click the more icon on one of their posts or on their profile, then Mute. On the web a banner lets you undo it. X's mute page says muted accounts can still follow you and send you Direct Messages, and replies and mentions from muted accounts you follow still reach your Notifications tab.
Deselect wrong interests
In the app: Settings and privacy from your profile icon menu, then Privacy and safety. Below Data sharing and off-X activity, tap Ad preferences, then See your X data, and confirm your password. Tap Interests and ads data, then Interests from X, and deselect what doesn't fit. On X.com, go to Interests from X in Your X data. X says these changes can take some time to take effect across its systems. The steps are on X's Topics page.
Mark recommendations Not interested
On posts For You recommends, choose Not interested in this post. On suggested Topic prompts in Home and Explore, tap Not Interested. X's pages name these options but give no tap-by-tap path for posts (checked 4 November 2026).
Unfollow by hand, in small batches
Open Following on your profile and unfollow from that list; X's Following FAQ says X sends no notification when you do. X's authenticity policy lists following or unfollowing a large number of unrelated accounts in a short time period, particularly by automated means, as engagement spam, so spread a big clean-up over several days. See our guide to X's follow limits before a large clean-up.
Does clearing your search history reset the X algorithm?
Not according to the settings X has published. Its code includes a recent-search input that passes embeddings of your 16 most recent searches, with the search text removed, to the ranking model, but the switch for it is set to false in the settings file (checked 4 November 2026). Going by those defaults, your searches aren't an input to the For You model right now, though X runs experiments on small shares of traffic, so some accounts may differ.
What the code does count is attention. Next to likes and replies, the model predicts dwell, dwell time, video watching and profile visits. Dwell carries a small positive weight (0.05), and scrolling past without dwelling a small negative one (-0.02). Two filters also run on every visit: posts older than 48 hours are dropped, and so are posts you have already been shown.
The practical rule: stop pausing on posts you don't want more of. Reading a pile-on to the end, opening the author's profile and replying to argue are all actions the model tries to predict, and it predicts them from your own history.
Can you turn off the algorithm on X?
You can step around it. X's For You recommendations page says you can always choose posts that are not personalised for you by selecting the Following timeline: "The Following timeline displays posts only from the accounts you follow and they are shown in reverse chronological order."
Lists are the second route. X's Lists page says a List timeline shows posts from only the accounts on that List, a List can be private, and a pinned List sits to the right of For You and Following. On desktop: click Lists in the navigation bar, then the Create new List icon, give it a name (25 characters at most, not starting with a number), choose private, click Next, add people and click Done. X also shows recommendations from Lists you follow in For You. For a B2B team, a private List of buyers and peers gives you a feed of only the people you picked; our guide to finding customers on X shows how to fill one from searches.
Topic controls are newer. Nikita Bier, then X's head of product, announced Custom Timelines in April 2026: pin one of over 75 topics to your Home tab, with early access for Premium subscribers on iOS. X's media literacy action plan says a Snooze feature gives certain users more control over topics on For You, such as restricting posts about politics. The published code has a filter that removes posts outside requested topics and posts in excluded topics. Neither source says which accounts have these features today, so check your own app.
One more switch to know about: X's Personalization and data settings page says a single master setting at the top of that screen disables all of its personalisation and data features. On desktop web you open the page directly; on iOS and Android, tap your profile photo, then Settings and privacy, Privacy and safety and Personalization and data. The page doesn't say whether the switch changes For You (checked 4 November 2026).
A 14-day plan to retrain a founder's X feed
Our plan, not X's. It uses only the controls above: about 30 minutes on day one, then 10 to 15 minutes a day.
Day 1: take a baseline
Open For You and count how many of the first 20 posts are about your market: buyers, peers, your category. Write the number down.
Day 1: mute and deselect
Mute ten words or hashtags that pull you off topic, set to 30 days so you review them later. Deselect interests in Your X data that have nothing to do with your work.
Day 1: build a private List
Add 30 to 50 buyers, peers and analysts in your niche, and pin the List next to Following.
Days 1 to 14: engage on purpose
Read your List first. Like or reply to five posts there that you want more of; our X post and reply templates help with the replies. Mark three off-topic recommendations Not interested, and scroll past bait without stopping.
Days 2 to 7: prune who you follow
Unfollow a handful of off-market accounts a day by hand, and mute the ones you can't unfollow.
Day 14: recount
Count the first 20 For You posts again and compare with day one. If the feed is still off, look at who you follow: followed accounts are where in-network posts come from, so a following list built for another purpose keeps pulling the feed back.
Frequently asked questions
Can you clear your Twitter feed?
Not the For You feed itself: X's help pages describe no option to clear it (checked 4 November 2026). For a clean view today, switch to the Following tab, which X says shows only accounts you follow in reverse chronological order and reopens next time if you leave it open. A pinned private List gives you a second feed made only of accounts you chose.
Can I turn off algorithms on X?
Not for For You, but you can work around it. X describes the Following timeline as posts that are not personalised for you, and a List timeline shows posts only from the List's members. Muted words and muted accounts are filtered out before X's ranking model scores anything, so they apply inside For You too. Topic controls such as Custom Timelines and Snooze reached some accounts first, according to X's own posts and pages.
How do I avoid a Twitter suspension in 2026?
When cleaning up, work by hand and spread it out. X's authenticity policy names mass following or unfollowing of unrelated accounts in a short period, especially with automation, and using third-party services for such actions. It says penalties depend on severity and history, from deleting posts or a temporary lock for a first offence to permanent suspension at first detection for severe cases. Muting changes your feed without any unfollows.
How do I restart Twitter from scratch?
Open a separate account. X's authenticity policy allows up to ten accounts for different, non-duplicative purposes, including one for your business, but not new accounts made to get around a suspension. A new account starts with no engagement history and no followers. X's published code also filters out-of-network posts below an engagement threshold from new accounts' For You feeds.
Does muting someone on X notify them?
No. X's mute help page says muted accounts won't know you muted them, and you can unmute at any time. They can still follow you and send you Direct Messages. If you follow them, their replies and mentions still appear in your Notifications tab, while their earlier posts are removed from your Home timeline.
How long does it take to reset the X algorithm?
X's help pages give no timeframe (checked 4 November 2026). Its published settings show the ranking model reads up to 1,024 items of your recent engagement history, so once it is full, each new item pushes an older one out. If every like or reply were one item, 50 a day would refresh it in about three weeks. Muted words and accounts work differently: the code filters them out of every feed request before ranking.
Sources
- X Help Center: Our approach to recommendations (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: For You Home Timeline Recommendations (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X algorithm repository: README (For You feed) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X algorithm repository: home-mixer/params/param.rs (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: About your For you timeline on X (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: How to use advanced muting options (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: How to mute accounts on X (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: Topics on X (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: Personalization and data settings (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: Following FAQs (updated 28 Sep 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: Authenticity policy (April 2025; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X algorithm repository: recent_search_queries_query_hydrator.rs (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: How to use X Lists (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Nikita Bier on X: Introducing Custom Timelines (posted 21 Apr 2026 (UTC); checked 4 Nov 2026)
- X Help Center: X Media Literacy Action Plan (checked 4 Nov 2026)