Editorial policy

This site publishes two kinds of writing: pages about a tool we build, and guides to X's features and to apps people use alongside it. We can speak to the first from experience and have to report on the second, so the standards for each are set out separately, along with how to tell us when we get something wrong.

What we speak to from experience

The downloader is ours. What this site says about how X delivers media comes from building and testing the code that reads it, not from other articles. Three examples, because "we have experience" means nothing as a bare claim:

• GIFs are described as MP4 because they are MP4. X converts uploaded GIFs to MP4 video and serves them that way. The downloader returns that file untouched rather than converting it back into a larger, lower-quality GIF.
• Broadcast conversion is tested against a real 24-hour replay. The replay we test with is split into almost 36,000 segments, and its clock restarts 183 times. The converter splits at each restart and joins the pieces onto one timeline, and an automated test checks the resulting MP4 files decode cleanly with sound and picture in sync.
• Photo sizes are what X publishes. The downloader asks X for its original size of each photo, and the tests check that it does. We don't describe anything as "enhanced" or "4K", because nothing is upscaled.

Where a technical claim can't be checked like this, we leave it out.

How guides about X and apps are written

We don't control X or the apps we write about, so those guides are reporting, not documentation. The standards we write them to:

• Primary sources first. Product behaviour is checked against the company's own material, such as the X Help Center and official app store listings, at the time of writing.
• Dated, both ways. Every guide shows when it was published, and when it was last substantially revised. Menus move and prices change, and the dates let you judge how far to trust a page.
• Prices and figures are as of the date shown. Where a guide quotes a price, plan or figure, it is what we found then. When one is out of date, we fix it.
• Unflattering details stay in. If a tool we otherwise recommend adds a watermark, caps quality or charges for something important, the guide says so.
• Disagreement is reported, not resolved. Where sources conflict, the guide says they conflict instead of picking the convenient one.

Older guides are brought up to these standards as they are revised.

Who writes this

Guides are published as "The XDownloader Team" rather than under individual bylines, and the team is accountable for them. We would rather credit the publisher honestly than attach an invented author with invented credentials. There are currently 11 guides, each with its publication date.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, we want to know. A specific report is far more useful than a general one: email hello@xdownloader.dev with the page and the claim you're disputing.

• Factual errors are fixed in place, and the page's last-updated date changes so its timestamp reflects the edit.
• Substantive corrections are noted on the page where the original claim could have led someone to act on it, rather than silently overwritten.
• Routine updates are not annotated. When X moves a menu and we update a step, the date moves and that is all.

Funding and independence

• No advertising. The site shows no ads and loads no ad code.
• No affiliate links. Nothing on this site earns a commission when you click it, so no recommendation has money behind it.
• No sponsored or paid placement. No guide, mention or link has been paid for, and none is for sale.
• No paid tier and no tracking. Every feature is free, there are no analytics, and we hold no user data to sell. The privacy policy lists everything that is kept.

If any of this changes, for example if ads are added, it will be disclosed on this page and in the privacy policy before it appears on the site, and labelled where it appears.

What we can't promise

• X changes things without notice. A guide that was right the day it was written can be wrong a month later. That is what the dates are for.
• We are not affiliated with X Corp. Nothing here is official documentation, and we have no channel to X beyond what it publishes.
• This is not legal advice. Guides discuss copyright in general terms because the topic comes with downloading. A specific situation needs a lawyer.
• Translations are machine-assisted. The homepage is available in 13 languages; the guides and legal pages are in English. The translations have not all been reviewed by native speakers, and corrections to any of them are welcome.