• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Following the completion of X’s revamped Android app, Nikita Bier is stepping down from his role as the company’s head of product, announcing that he will continue to offer advisory help to the team.

“It’s time to pass the torch and demote myself to my natural state: a poster,” Bier wrote on X on Wednesday. “I’ll be stepping back from leading product for X and will continue on as an advisor.”

Hired by X in July 2025, Bier was best known in the tech community as the founder of “Gas” and “TBH” -- two teen-driven apps that were acquired, respectively, by Discord and Facebook in 2017 and 2023. Both apps gained millions of users in a short period of time, and have been used as case studies in viral marketing strategy. 

One of the most public-facing engineers at X who posted regular updates to the platform, Bier has spent the past 15 months leading multiple rebuilds of the app experience, including the timeline and Android app, while introducing a creator video-editing hub and two standalone apps -- X Money and X Chat. 

Bier also wrote that he oversaw the launch of “nearly 30 new products” during his time at X. 

However, Bier’s initial plans to leverage the power of X’s AI chatbot Grok in product launches and revamps coincided with notable scandals with regard to Grok, such as the chatbot referring to itself as “MechaHitler,” as well as its compliance in user-generated nonconsensual nudes and child sexual abuse material.

Bier wrote in his post that “it’s now time for me to take a breather.”

No one has yet been named as Bier’s successor.