Elon Musk announces full rollout of XChat, but skepticism grows around its security claims as privacy experts call for more transparency
Elon Musk announced on Sunday that a new version of X’s Direct Messaging (DM) feature, XChat, was being released. This version will include support for vanishing communications, encryption, and the ability to share files, in addition to its audio and video calling capabilities.
The new features are not yet widely accessible, as XChat has only recently initiated beta testing with a limited number of users. Nevertheless, Musk stated that the X team anticipates that XChat will be accessible to all users by the end of the week unless they encounter scaling issues during the deployment.
Musk also mentioned in a succession of X posts that the updated version of XChat has been constructed on Rust with “Bitcoin-style” encryption and a “whole new architecture.” Given that Bitcoin cannot be classified as “encrypted,” it is unclear what he means by “Bitcoin-style encryption.” (Bitcoin employs public key cryptography and signatures to ensure its security.)
Consequently, some debate whether Musk is employing the terminology solely as a marketing ploy, if he misunderstands encryption, or if he has mistakenly used the incorrect term—possibly intending to use “cryptography” instead.
X’s proprietor frequently desires to establish X’s direct messages as a competitor to encrypted platforms such as Signal and iMessage. Nevertheless, classifying XChat as a service that uses only “Bitcoin-style encryption” raises the question of whether it is truly a potential competitor.
Furthermore, Musk announced on X that XChat users can now create audio and video calls across all platforms without needing a phone number.
X announced that it was suspending the development of encrypted direct messages (DMs) before this launch, likely due to the imminent replacement of the previous system by XChat.
Regrettably, multiple disruptions have rendered X users unable to access timelines and utilize other features, such as XChat, over the past week.
