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Musk Unveils X Chat With Bitcoin‑Style Encryption, Standalone App Planned in Coming Months

X is testing a rebuilt, peer‑to‑peer messenger that drops ad‑targeting hooks.

Overview

  • An in‑app X Chat beta is live for Premium subscribers with text, photos, GIFs, media attachments, and file sharing tied to X handles rather than phone numbers.
  • Elon Musk said a separate X Chat app will launch in the coming months while the messaging experience remains integrated inside X.
  • Musk described the security design as peer‑to‑peer and similar to Bitcoin, calling the encryption “very good” but still under thorough internal testing.
  • He said the service omits advertising hooks to limit metadata collection, contrasting X Chat with rivals that retain data for ad targeting.
  • Audio and video calling are part of the roadmap but are not available in the current beta, which replaces X’s legacy direct messages.