StillfeedStillfeed
Menu
Get the app
Doomscrolling

Setting Up X on a New iPhone Duo: A 10-Minute Checklist

By Gokhan Tosun · · 4 min read

Someone lying in bed in the dark, lit only by their phone screen

A new phone is the best moment you will get to change how you use it. Nothing is installed yet, no habit has set into the home screen, and every app asks you to decide again. If you picked up an iPhone Duo and X is on your list of apps to bring back, here is a short checklist for doing it on purpose.

In short: decide what X is for before you sign in. Open it on Following, keep search and messages, drop Trends and suggested accounts, and keep the old X app off the first page of your home screen. Stillfeed does the first three on iPhone; the last one is yours.

Why a new phone is the right moment

Habits attach to places. The spot where X sits on your home screen, the swipe that opens it, the tab it lands on: those cues are what bring you back several dozen times a day. A restore from a backup brings every one of them back along with your photos. A fresh start breaks the chain for a few days, and that gap is the cheapest opening you will have to change it. Our guide to a dopamine detox makes the same point about environment beating willpower.

The checklist

  1. Decide what X is for. Write one sentence: following a handful of people, reading a specific community, posting. If the sentence is "seeing what's going on," that is the feed talking.
  2. Don't restore the X app to your first home screen page. If you set up as a new device or restore from a backup, check where the icon landed. Move it, or skip it entirely.
  3. Open X on Following. Following shows accounts you chose. For You is recommended and has no end. In Stillfeed, X opens with the home timeline on Following.
  4. Lose Trends and suggestions. As of October 2026, Stillfeed blocks the Trends page and hides trending topics and Explore suggestions, while search keeps working.
  5. Sign in to X inside Stillfeed. Pick X, log in as you normally would. Your username and password go to X, not to Stillfeed, and you don't need a Stillfeed account.
  6. Check your notifications. Switch off the ones that exist to pull you back, such as "trending now," and keep the ones from people you know.
  7. Set a boundary outside the app. A system-level limit is the backstop for a bad day. See our notes on how to stop doomscrolling.
  8. Pick a review date. Put a reminder a week out and ask honestly whether the setup is serving the sentence you wrote in step one.

A note on iPhone Duo

Apple's announcement describes a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer display, with availability from October 23. Apple's product page also shows two apps side by side in landscape. None of that changes this checklist, because the checklist is about the feed, not the hardware.

Stillfeed is an iPhone app. We are not claiming it is optimized for, designed for or tested on iPhone Duo, and we are not describing how X's own app behaves on it. If you like the idea, install it, open X, and see how it looks on your device.

A week later

If you only change one thing from this list, make it step two. The position of the icon often decides how often you open the app. A feed you have to go looking for is a feed you use on purpose, and one under your thumb is a feed you use by reflex. The research we summarise in how to improve your attention span points the same way: change the environment first, then rely on willpower for what is left.

Two questions are worth asking. First, are you opening X because you want something specific, or because your thumb went there? Second, when you close it, do you feel finished or just interrupted? A Following-only timeline has an end, so "finished" becomes possible again. If you are still opening it constantly, the fix is probably not a different setting but a different place on your phone. The free core of Stillfeed covers the feed settings; the optional Stillfeed Pro adds extras, such as hiding sponsored posts and a media filter, if you want them.

Common questions

Do I have to delete the X app?

No, but the official app will still open on its own recommended screens. Removing it from your home screen, or never restoring it, is what makes the change stick.

Will I lose my account or followers?

No. Stillfeed signs you into your existing X account and doesn't change who you follow or what you have posted.

Can I still search X?

Yes. Search stays available so you can look something up on purpose.

Is this specific to iPhone Duo?

No. The same checklist works on any iPhone. The new phone is just a good excuse.

Sources

More iPhone Duo guides

Keep the app. Lose the endless feed.

Stillfeed removes Reels, Shorts and Explore from Instagram and YouTube, free from your first launch. No setup, no sign-up.

Download on the App Store