🇨🇳 简体中文 • Features • Installation • Shortcuts • License
🎬 Click preview to open the HD demo video (demo.mp4 · 947KB)
SideX transforms how you read X (Twitter) on the web. Click any tweet to auto-load comments on the right and unroll long posts in-place—experience seamless, uninterrupted reading with zero page hops. Never lose your timeline scroll position again.
- 🚀 In-Place Drawer: Click any tweet to dock its replies directly in the 3rd column—zero page redirects or reload.
- 📖 Auto-Unroll Long Posts: Automatically expands "Show more" on focal posts.
- 🧵 Conversation Tree & Drill-down: Choose a default preview N of 1, 2, 3 or 5, filled as the branch enters view. The first click adds N+2 replies, up to 2N+2 total (for example, 3 → 8); the second expands and loads the whole ordinary branch. Collapse or change the setting to reset to N, preserving drafts and scroll. Author continuations stay visible. Full reply text is shown by default and can be turned off.
- 📚 Reply loading: Shows loaded direct replies alongside X's reported total. Main-list automatic loading defaults to on and can be disabled. Branch previews follow enough pages to fill their selected size without prefetching offscreen branches. An explicit Expand and load all action follows the selected branch to its ordinary end. Manual loading pauses main-list automation. Folded replies still need a separate reveal action. Errors, empty pages and repeated cursors stop continuous branch loading.
- 📌 Optional panel pinning: Keep the panel open across outside clicks, Esc and X navigation, with the active post highlighted. You can still switch posts or close the panel manually. Automatic pinning defaults to off and applies to newly opened panels.
- 💬 Quick replies and official dialogs: The compact quick toolbar has seven entries: images, GIFs, polls, emoji, scheduling, location and content disclosure (flag). Send text, emoji and up to four JPG/PNG/WebP images directly. Advanced tools open X's actual dialogs above the sidebar. In Official mode, clicking a comment's reply icon opens the official reply dialog in the current page without another browser window.
- ✍️ Separate text drafts: Unsent text is kept separately per post and reply target and restored on return. A successful reply clears its draft and selected recipient, returning the composer to the main post. Failed sends retain both; late confirmations preserve newer drafts. Switch posts and close comments freely. Refreshing or closing the tab clears drafts; images are not retained after closing or switching replies.
- 🔄 Native interactions first: Quotes open X's official in-page composer with the original-post card. Sharing uses X's official menu with account and media-specific options, even for replies absent from the native timeline. Reuse native like and bookmark controls when the same post is rendered on the page; other comments use X session requests.
- ✨ Grok and official More menu: Analyze the selected reply with Grok or open X's official three-dot menu from its header, including replies absent from the native timeline. Grok, Chat and official menus appear above the SideX sidebar.
- 🌐 Translation options: Translate from the compact icon directly after Like in each reply's action bar, then click again to hide the translation. Use X official translation by default, choose Google, or hide SideX translation controls and use your existing translator's selection/page translation.
- 👤 Profile hover cards: Hover authors, reply recipients or @mentions in reply text. Reuse X's actual card and interactions, including its loaded native profile component for users absent from the main page. If the native component is unavailable, show a fallback with biography, relationship counts and followers you know.
- 🎨 Adaptive Themes & Resizable: Matches X's Light, Dim, and Dark themes. Drag the right edge to adjust sidebar width.
- 🛡️ Runs in your browser: Reuses your X session without a SideX relay server. When Google translation is selected, post text is sent directly to Google.
Compatible with Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and other Chromium browsers:
👉 Install from Chrome Web Store with seamless automatic updates!
- Download the latest published
SideX-v*.zipfrom Releases and extract it. - Open
chrome://extensions/(oredge://extensions/), enable "Developer mode" in the top-right corner. - Click "Load unpacked" and select the extracted folder.
git clone https://github.com/UncleK/SideX.gitThen click "Load unpacked" and select the cloned SideX folder.
- Open x.com or twitter.com and click any tweet to start reading!
| Shortcut / Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Click Tweet body | Open or switch comments in place, keeping separate text drafts |
| ESC | Close the current overlay or unpinned comments drawer |
| Click outside drawer | Close an unpinned comments drawer and keep its text draft |
| Pin button | Toggle whether outside clicks, Esc and X navigation keep the panel open |
| Drawer close button | Close the drawer and keep its text draft |
| Drag right edge | Resize drawer width (auto-saved) |
| Double-click handle | Reset drawer to default width |
| Ctrl + V | Paste clipboard image directly into reply box |
| Ctrl + Enter | Send reply |
SideX is an independent open-source productivity extension and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with X Corp. or Twitter.
Version 1.1.39 updates the inline reply request for X's current web client and keeps the native hover background on the selected post while SideX is open. The background follows the selected post and clears when the sidebar closes. See the bilingual release notes, QA record, and combined store description.
Version 1.1.35 resets the reply recipient after a successful send and restores native X profile cards for @mentions in reply text, including users absent from the main timeline. Failed sends retain their recipient and text; late confirmations preserve newer drafts. All 230 regression tests pass. The actual reloaded local extension was checked on X; send confirmations were simulated locally without publishing test replies. See the bilingual release notes and combined store description.
The committed source and vendor/twitter-text.js need no build for normal edits. Run npm run build:text when updating the text library; this also generates bundled license notices. Reload SideX in chrome://extensions after editing, then refresh X.
npm ci --ignore-scripts
npm testTests use synthetic X responses and DOM fixtures without performing real account actions. They cover profile parsing, translation requests, long-text chunking, native controls, rollback, retained reading state, scroll reset, and stale responses. X internals and third-party translation extensions may change. Without a matching native profile link, SideX renders a fallback with a full-profile link rather than simulating Grok's Profile Summary button; comments without native nodes are still rendered by SideX.
Version 1.1.34 corrects the first click to append N+2 (for example, 3 → 8 → all) and fills visible branches to the selected preview size. Settings are grouped, full reply text defaults to on, and restoring all defaults preserves reply drafts. A short orange refresh reminder appears only after a preference changes. All 224 local regression tests pass; current-source behavior was checked in Chrome with synthetic replies. See the bilingual release notes and full store descriptions. Refresh X after updating SideX or changing settings; refreshing clears temporary text drafts.
Version 1.1.33 repairs detected native X Article quote rows whose zero-width captions create long blank areas. Reply previews now follow N, N+2, then all: the first click reads at most one page, and the second follows only the selected branch's ordinary pages. Collapsing or changing the limit resets previews while preserving drafts and scroll. Author continuations stay visible; siblings and folded replies are not fetched automatically. All 218 local regression tests pass. The layout correction was checked on a real X page. Current-source settings and staged expansion were checked in Chrome with synthetic data; a fresh ZIP installation was not tested.
Version 1.1.32 fixes a profile card briefly flashing beside the original post's avatar after leaving a sidebar avatar. The native component stays hidden while X finishes dismissing it, and is released when X removes or reuses it or a new native hover begins. Normal X profile cards and quick sidebar re-entry remain available. All 204 local regression tests pass. Dismissal, native hover and sidebar re-entry were checked on a real X page using an isolated source harness.
Version 1.1.31 restores native X profile cards for authors and @mentions while SideX is open, both in timelines and on post detail pages. The promoted portal keeps X's document coordinates so cards stay beside the hovered user after scrolling. Sidebar avatars no longer show a duplicate browser tooltip, and a previous card's closing animation no longer blocks selecting the next user's native card. All 197 local regression tests pass. Scrolled timeline and post-detail behavior was checked on a real X page using an isolated current-source harness, rather than a fresh ZIP installation.
Version 1.1.30 fixes profile cards repeatedly opening and closing while the pointer stays on an avatar. X's transparent hover overlay no longer intercepts the pointer, moving between the same author's avatar and name keeps one card session, and profile hydration preserves the visible card. Cards open above or beside the trigger when needed to avoid covering it. All 194 local regression tests pass. A real X page running the current source in an isolated harness confirmed stable hover, card entry, dismissal and author switching; this was not a fresh ZIP installation test.
Version 1.1.29 moves translation into a compact icon directly after Like, removing the separate Translate post text on each reply. The icon stays visible during loading, highlights while a translation is shown and toggles cached translations without another request. Labels and retry states remain available through tooltips and accessible names. Narrow action bars keep all icons on one row. All 188 local regression tests pass; Chrome layout and toggle checks used a local source fixture at 320px and 520px panel widths, not a fresh ZIP installation.
Version 1.1.28 adds Grok analysis and X's official More menu to reply headers, including sidebar-only replies. Each action targets the selected reply. Grok, Chat and native menus now appear above the sidebar, including during loading or a failed read. Native editors stay in their original React portal, and collapsed chat bars do not block Escape. All 188 local regression tests pass. The official menu target and Grok/Chat foreground behavior were checked on a real X page using an isolated source harness, rather than a fresh ZIP installation.
Version 1.1.27 makes branch loading explicit: each click loads one page only for the selected tweet branch. Visible branch cursors no longer auto-load, and preview settings no longer prefetch siblings. After a manual load, this open conversation stays in click-to-load mode; collapsing never loads other posts. Responses keep their original cursor ownership while only the selected branch's models, visibility restrictions and continuation positions are applied. All 178 local regression tests pass, including the new request-count and scope-isolation cases.
Version 1.1.26 aligns branch loading and expansion controls with reply text. The avatar thread line continues to the load-more control and ends with a small dot. Expanded branches place Load more replies and Collapse replies on the same row; once loading finishes, only Collapse remains. Normal and inline pagination, loading and retry states were checked using the actual rendered DOM in Chrome, including Chinese and English at a 320px panel width. The source passes all 172 local regression tests; browser layout checks used local fixtures rather than a fresh store installation.
Version 1.1.25 integrates PR #5 by maxDNA. Returning from a reply to its parent post now preserves the current response's reply order instead of promoting previously visited replies. Cached descendants remain available without duplicates, and current content and visibility updates retain precedence. The combined code passes 172 local regression tests, including the v1.1.24 quote and share cases.
Version 1.1.24 opens quotes in X's official in-page composer with the original-post card. Sharing uses X's loaded menu component, including its account and media-specific options, even for replies absent from the native timeline. Existing drafts are preserved; unavailable native controls show a retry message.
Version 1.1.23 integrates PR #2, PR #3 and PR #4: optional panel pinning with an active-post marker, loaded/total reply counts, near-bottom loading, author-thread unfolding and scoped nested pagination. Auto-pin and automatic long-text expansion default to off; automatic pagination defaults to on. Folded replies require an explicit reveal action. Additional fixes preserve normal pagination before Spam, retain pending requests through navigation and native observations, and apply visibility updates to cached replies and their descendants. The combined source passes 162 local regression cases and keeps the v1.1.22 text-only draft behavior. Chinese and English popup layouts and setting writes were also checked in Chromium using a local extension-API fixture.
Version 1.1.22 removes reply protection and its navigation prompts, and keeps separate text drafts per post and reply target. Switching posts, closing the drawer, pressing Esc or clicking outside saves the current text; returning restores it with the original recipient. Drafts last only in the current tab until the page is refreshed or the tab is closed. Image attachments are not saved with drafts and are cleared when closing or switching replies. Failed or unconfirmed sends retain text; confirmed publication clears only the corresponding draft. Pending sends remain single-flight, late responses cannot clear a different reply, and the Reply button returns to its idle state when a request finishes. Validation includes 85 local regression cases, including draft restoration, discarded attachments and late uploads.
Version 1.1.18 adds a Photo comments setting, defaulting to SideX. SideX replaces only the native photo viewer's right column, keeping image navigation and native collapse/expand. The SideX header also offers collapse; expanding retains comment position and drafts. Timeline image links still open the native viewer, while text and blank areas open the in-place comments. Photo styling and reply mode are independent settings. Official reply mode has no bottom composer. Escape from a quick tool returns directly to its starting history entry, preserving an underlying photo viewer.
Quoted text previews use at most three lines. Overflowing quotes can expand and collapse in place, retaining links, media and the original-post action. Photo comments default to SideX while preserving an explicitly saved Official choice.
Previous fixes preserve body links and authored mentions, exclude sibling branches, and support paginated loading with retry, deduplication and stale-response isolation. The public fields in tests/fixtures/google-source-comment.json reproduce the source-link regression.
The quick composer keeps its compact layout and is never replaced by a moved official editor. X's editors and pickers retain their original React parents; SideX promotes the existing dialog portal to the browser top layer so the sidebar cannot cover them. The flag opens X's actual content disclosure panel for paid partnerships and AI content. Advanced editing, attachments and publication continue in the official reply dialog. Current input can be transferred to official tools; matching publication confirmation clears its text draft without affecting other replies. SideX keeps only text drafts, not images or native tool selections. If the native router is unavailable, the current editor stays available with an explicit message; Official mode can fall back to X's reply intent in the current tab. Tests cover both mode selections, native tools, draft transfer, picker navigation, stale confirmations and official text counting without publishing real account actions.
MIT License © 2026 SideX Contributors