Post to X

Reelspan posts to X with the X API v2. You send the post once; Reelspan uploads the media in chunks, waits for X to process it, and posts it. Text longer than 280 characters becomes a thread.

What you can post

Reelspan handles for you:

• Threads. Text over 280 characters is split into posts of up to 280, on paragraph breaks first, then lines, then words. The first post carries the media; each next post replies to the one before.
• Chunked upload of videos and images, then a wait while X processes them (up to 10 minutes).
• Link removal. X charges far more for a post that contains a link, so Reelspan removes links unless you keep them (see below).

Connect the account

X connects with an OAuth sign-in: in the dashboard go to Accounts → X, or send a white-label connect link. Any X account works.

Example

A video post where only accounts you follow can reply:

curl -X POST https://api.reelspan.com/v1/posts/video \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSPAN_API_KEY" \
  -F "user=my-brand" \
  -F "platform[]=x" \
  -F "x_title=Shipping day. Here's the 30-second tour." \
  -F "reply_settings=following" \
  -F "[email protected]"

import { Reelspan } from 'reelspan';
import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const reelspan = new Reelspan();
const post = await reelspan.posts.video({
  user: 'my-brand',
  platforms: ['x'],
  video: { data: await readFile('launch.mp4'), name: 'launch.mp4', type: 'video/mp4' },
  extra: { x_title: "Shipping day. Here's the 30-second tour.", reply_settings: 'following' },
});

from reelspan import Reelspan

reelspan = Reelspan()
post = reelspan.posts.video(
    "my-brand", ["x"], "launch.mp4",
    extra={"x_title": "Shipping day. Here's the 30-second tour.", "reply_settings": "following"},
)

Fields

List fields (poll_options, tagged_user_ids, exclude_reply_user_ids) can be sent as repeated fields, a JSON array, or one comma-separated string.

A poll

curl -X POST https://api.reelspan.com/v1/posts/text \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSPAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "user": "my-brand",
    "platform": ["x"],
    "title": "Which should we build next?",
    "poll_options": ["Dark mode", "CSV export", "Zapier app"],
    "poll_duration": "4320"
  }'

X takes polls only on posts without media: on a video or photo post the poll is left out and the result carries a warning. Fewer than 2 or more than 4 options, an option over 25 characters, or a duration outside 5 to 10080 minutes fails the post with invalid_poll.

Links in X posts

X bills about $0.20 for a post with a link, against about $0.015 without. So by default Reelspan removes http:// and https:// links from the text and adds a warning to the result.

Send x_keep_links=true to keep them. Each such post uses one of your plan's X link posts for the month (see Plans and limits). When the allowance is used up, the links are removed as usual. The same check runs when you edit a scheduled post or retry one.

Limits

• Post: 280 characters (counted as people see them: an emoji is one). Longer text becomes a thread, or one long post with x_long_text_as_post and X Premium.
• Media per post: one video, or up to 4 photos and GIFs. With more photos, the first 4 are used and the result says so.
• Video size: your plan's upload limit (see Plans and limits).
• Shapes: 16:9 or 1:1 work best.

Good to know

• A thread that stops halfway keeps the posts already made: the result is a success with a warning saying where it stopped.
• Result extras: media_id (and media_ids for several photos), and post_ids for a thread, in order.
• Alt text: if X refuses the alt text for an image, the post still goes out with a warning.
• First comment: posted as a reply to the new post.
• Analytics: followers, following, posts and likes for the account; impressions, likes, reposts, replies, quotes and saves per post.

After posting

• Delete a post with Unpublish.
• Edit its text with Edit a post. X allows edits only on accounts with X Premium, within an hour of posting and up to five times. An edit makes a new post id: the answer gives it as post_id, with previous_post_id and edit_history_post_ids. Links are removed from the new text unless fields.x_keep_links is true, as when posting.
• Repost any public post from the account with Repost. X counts reposts against the account's daily write limit.

Errors