Elon Musk’s X has been expanding its services beyond the usual microvlogging concept. With xAI working hard to take the lead in the AI race with Grok, X itself has jumped into the personal messenger service to take the fight to Meta’s WhatsApp, a platform that is also on the radar for Zoho’s Arattai.
X Chat has been launched as a new messaging platform integrated directly into the social media service. Positioned as a privacy-focused alternative, the service is set to compete directly with established giants. The launch was confirmed by Musk on X, where he highlighted the comprehensive overhaul of the platform’s Direct Messaging (DM) infrastructure.
“X just rolled out an entire new communications stack with encrypted messages, audio/video calls, and file transfer,” Musk wrote in his post. This accompanies the impending release of ‘X Money,’ an upcoming digital payments feature that is part of a strategy to make X an ‘everything app’.
X Chat features: How it differs from its rivals
The way X Chat differentiates from its rivals is its focus on user privacy and message control. The service provides end-to-end encryption for all chats, including group messages and file sharing. This is a crucial feature addition, especially at a time when the industry is putting a lot of stress on privacy and security. Zoho’s Arattai also released an update to bring E2E encryption to its text messaging service.
Then there’s a unique new feature called ‘block screenshots’ within Direct Messages (DMs) and group chats. Users will also be notified if another person attempts to capture a screenshot of their conversation, adding a layer of security rarely seen in consumer messaging apps.
Furthermore, X Chat gives users greater control over their sent messages. Unlike WhatsApp, where deleting a message leaves a “this message was deleted” remark, X Chat allows users to edit, delete, or enable disappearing messages that vanish completely without leaving any trace or notification.
The new service promises a no-ads, no-data-tracking environment, which aims to appeal specifically to users prioritising privacy. It also unifies the existing X messaging inbox, consolidating legacy Direct Messages and the new X Chat conversations in one place. Voice memo support is also expected to be added soon.
X Chat is currently available to users on iOS and the X web platform via the DMs section, with the company confirming that an Android version is slated for release shortly. At the moment, it doesn’t seem that X wants to release a standalone chat app on any of the platforms.
