X, and earlier Twitter, has long been the platform of choice for users who revel in the public eye — a space to share unfiltered thoughts, “takes” of all kinds, and viral drama.
But since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022, he has aimed to attract a more private set of users as he works to make X integral to everyday life.
His latest effort is a new feature called XChat. The “all new XChat is rolling out with encryption, vanishing messages, and the ability to send any kind of file. Also, audio/video calling,” Musk said in a post on X on Sunday.
Musk said the chat function would also have “(Bitcoin style) encryption,” which is a “whole new architecture.” He didn’t elaborate on what that actually means. X did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for clarification.
The new feature is already accessible to some X users with a paid subscription, TechCrunch reported. Messages also appear to be secured behind a four-digit passcode, according to TechCrunch.
Nima Owji, who says on their X bio that they are an independent app researcher and web developer, posted a screenshot of the XChat user interface in April, noting that it “will support more advanced group chats and VANISHING MODE!” He also told TechCrunch that the new feature is ready to ship.
The company first released its encrypted messaging feature for paid users in May 2023. X paused the feature last week to focus on “making some improvements,” possibly linked to the launch of XChat.
For the past couple of years, X has been working on adding more private, encrypted features as it attempts to become an “everything app” similar to China’s WeChat. In a companywide meeting in 2023, Musk said he wanted to see X as a “fully fledged” dating site and a digital bank in 2024, among other things.
Musk isn’t the only Silicon Valley mogul with ambitions to build a super app for the West.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s futuristic side project, World, is working to verify humans in the digital world for various applications. In March, it launched its own version of the “App Store,” and it’s also hosting an incubator program for developers to build the kind of apps it wants to see in its store: “everyday apps optimized for real humans.”
At a World event in May, it said it had more than 26 million users and 12 million “verified” users — a fraction of the 600 million monthly active users Musk said X had in October 2024.
Still, with the recent US launch of Orbs — 9-inch devices that collect biometric data by taking pictures of human irises — World is inching closer to its vision of a verified network of humans for the AI age. The process of using Orbs “is simple and a bit amusing if not slightly dystopian,” wrote Business Insider’s Lloyd Lee, who uploaded his biometric data to the gadget at an event hosted by the company last month.
Musk has recently pivoted back to focusing on his companies, including X and Tesla, after announcing he would step back from his work for the Trump administration last month.
