X has by no means been a go-to app for messaging, even again when it was generally known as Twitter. Direct messages are helpful, positive, and I’ve little question that somebody on the market makes use of it as their fundamental chat app. However the platform’s chat perform have by no means been most customers’ motive for logging on, particularly in comparison with devoted platforms like WhatsApp.
However Elon Musk is not content material with that established order. As TechCrunch experiences, Musk has made it clear over time since he acquired and renamed Twitter that he desires DMs to compete with (and beat out) rivals like Sign and iMessage. Now, he is lastly making a transfer, as DMs on X are remodeling into one thing new: XChat.
On Sunday, Musk posted on X asserting that XChat’s rollout. It does seem that the brand new chat characteristic is at the moment in beta, however between Musk’s put up, and a few first-hand reporting, it seems to be like XChat is bringing 4 key new options to chatting on X.
Encryption
Encryption is the primary new characteristic Musk mentions in his XChat put up, and it is no thriller why. Finish-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging is a key characteristic for contemporary chat apps. It ensures that solely the customers concerned within the dialog are in a position to learn the messages despatched and acquired—if unhealthy actors had been to intercept the thread and try and learn the messages with out logging into the accepted person’s account, they’d see a jumble of meaningless code. Importantly, it means the corporate that makes the chat app cannot entry your messages both.
Most chat apps supply E2EE to a minimum of a point. Sign made the usual well-known, however iMessage, WhatsApp, and Messenger all use it. X’s DMs have historically not been encrypted, which meant it’s potential for somebody at X to learn your chats, or to launch your chats to the authorities ought to they request them.
Musk is not unsuitable that E2EE is important if you happen to’re attempting to make a chat app to compete with the likes of Sign, however he additionally is not clear if he understands how encryption works. Musk says XChat’s encryption is “construct on Rust with (Bitcoin model) encryption.” Rust is a programming language, which makes his wording right here a bit odd. (One Redditor factors out Musk is treating Rust like a platform, not the programming language that it’s.) However extra importantly, Bitcoin is not encrypted, which makes “Bitcoin-style encryption” a complicated assertion. There’s hypothesis that Musk means “cryptography,” which Bitcoin does use, however that is not the identical as encryption. For the sake of XChat’s customers, I hope chats are literally E2EE, however it’s powerful to say at this level.
Vanishing messages
Snapchat might have made vanishing messages standard, however it’s removed from the one app to supply them. For years, you’ve got been in a position to ship self-destructing texts in apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Quickly, you can do the identical in XChat.
It is not clear how XChat will deal with vanishing messages, however I am guessing the app will supply a self-destruct characteristic that can let you choose a time restrict earlier than a despatched message expires, like Telegram.
File sharing
With XChat, Musk says you may have the power to ship “any form of file.” He is sparse every other particulars, however file sharing is a helpful component to any chat app. At the moment, you’ll be able to ship images, movies, and GIFs in X DMs, however not different file sorts.
Make messages as unread
Musk didn’t announce this characteristic in his preliminary put up, however a person testing out the beta seen it. XChat helps “unreading” a message, or, primarily, marking it as unread. It is a small however useful change for messages you’ll be able to’t get to straight away, however do not need to neglect concerning the subsequent time you scroll via your chats.
What do you assume to this point?
Delete messages for everybody within the chat
That is one other new characteristic Musk didn’t announce himself. That very same beta tester put up notes that XChat helps the power to deleting a message for all contributors. Like many chat apps, if you happen to ship a message you remorse, you’ll be able to “undo” it, and it is going to be faraway from the recipients’ chats as effectively.
Many apps place a time restrict on this characteristic, nevertheless. iMessage, for instance, solely helps you to undo a message inside two minutes of sending it. After that, you may solely see the choice to delete it for your self. It is not but clear how lengthy XChat will allow you to delete a message for everybody after you ship it.
Audio and video calls (which are not really new)
As a part of the announcement, Musk stated that audio and video calls would even be rolling out to XChat—however X has already had audio and video calling for some time, so I am unsure why he selected to focus on them.
Will XChat really catch on as a messaging different?
Possibly I am skeptical, however I strongly doubt these new options—whereas genuinely helpful—will make XChat the chat app to beat, and for a easy motive: Have you ever ever tried getting your family and friends to change chat apps? It is like pulling enamel. Persons are set of their methods in the case of communication—whether or not they’re dedicated to their iPhones with iMessage, or they’re devoted to WhatsApp like many of the world. There are a lot of apps on the market for communication, and whereas folks change between them for varied causes, you are unlikely to maneuver them en masse to at least one particular platform.
Add to that the truth that this new choice is tied to a controversial platform owned by a controversial individual, and it is arduous to think about anybody signing up for X simply to make use of XChat. I might be unsuitable, however one thing tells me I will not be XChatting with my family and friends within the close to future.
