In early March, X (formerly Twitter) began testing a special app called XChat among thousands of beta testers. It appears that the testing phase is over and the app is ready for public rollout. The Elon Musk-owned company has announced that XChat is now listed on the App Store and is planning a full launch in the coming days.
What’s the big game?
The chat app’s listing page on the App Store mentions a release date of April 17 and will be available for iPhone and iPad simultaneously. As far as features go, the XChat app touts end-to-end encryption as one of its highlight features. For those unaware, E2E is currently considered the safest security protocol to ensure that your messages are private and no middleman or third party (including the company that created the platform) can read your conversations.
WhatsApp and Signal, for example, implement it by default. Instagram and Telegram have a special private chat feature that relies on end-to-end encryption to protect your messages.
Back to XChat: Screenshot blocking is also activated, which means that no participant in the conversation can take a screenshot of the chats. The app allows users to edit or delete sent messages and also send disappearing messages. Calls and group chats are also part of the package.
Since Musk acquired Back in December, Musk joked that he wanted to turn X into something like WeChat, the Chinese app that enables everything from messaging to payments to reservations, among a whole host of other quirky services. In June last year, it was reported that the X Super App would also offer investing and trading services once the Super App plans become a reality.
Why is this an interesting change?
The plans include more than just a simple messaging pivot to XChat. At least that’s what Musk’s previous claims and the recent turn of events suggest. On the surface, it looks like Musk just wants to offer a messaging app that fills the functionality gaps that aren’t quite accessible in the social media app.
Just a day ago, Musk shared on Although WhatsApp has denied these claims, Musk’s statement has further fueled privacy concerns. Separately, Telegram founder Pavel Durov claimed that WhatsApp’s encryption allegations represented the “biggest consumer fraud in history.” But that wasn’t all.
Signal – one of the most trusted messaging apps on the market due to its robust security protocols – also found itself in the firing line. The FBI was reportedly able to obtain the contents of Signal messages after accessing the notification history on a suspect’s iPhone, even though the app enabled a blocking feature. Pavel also took a hard look at Signal, emphasizing that Telegram never displays the content of a message in the notification banner.
It appears that XChat is making a splashy public debut at a time when trust in popular privacy-first platforms like WhatsApp and Signal is under scrutiny. Additionally, it would be interesting to see if X offers all features for free or if some of them are tied to a premium subscription like its sister social media service.
