Elon Musk Reveals XChat Features With Vanishing Messages, Better Encryption

The next step in Elon Musk’s mission to make his social media network into an “Everything” app is here with the CEO revealing new messaging features for X. This all comes under a new name of XChat, and it looks to be trying to compete with the likes of WhatsApp, Signal, and more. This isn’t a separate app; XChat is now part of the direct messaging features within X.

According to Musk, he says the brand new features are rolling out to users now. X, and previously Twitter, has had direct messaging functionality for a long time, but it has been limited compared to rivals. New features teased here include vanishing messages, expanded file sharing, as well as both audio and video calling.

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The social network has yet to confirm whether all these features will be locked behind the company’s subscription model, but so far it appears to only be available to those who subscribe to X. PCMag wasn’t able to access these features on an X account that doesn’t have an active premium subscription.

As reported by TechCrunch, one user who had early access to the features back in April found they could also turn on a four-digit passcode to help protect their messages further.

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X previously paused its encrypted direct messaging feature last week to begin rollout of these changes. Encrypted DMs have been a part of X for the last two years for those with a subscription. Many other messaging apps offer the security feature as a default to encourage more users.

Musk shared that encryption in XChat will be better than its previous iteration. He said, “This is built on Rust with (Bitcoin style) encryption, whole new architecture.” Musk didn’t provide any technical detail here.

Bitcoin doesn’t use end-to-end encryption, which is used by messaging rivals like WhatsApp. Instead, Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies use elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and Secure Hash Algorithm 256 (SHA-256) to generate keys for transactions. It may be cryptocurrency has served as inspiration for the security features within XChat rather than it being the exact same feature.

About James Peckham

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I’ve written tech news for over a decade, and as a Reporter at PCMag, I cover the latest developments across the gadgets and services you use every day. Previously, I worked for Android Police, TechRadar, and more.

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