Elon Musk tries again with messaging. After having transformed Twitter into X and having repeatedly evoked the idea of a platform capable of bringing together social media, payments, artificial intelligence and private communications, the entrepreneur launched XChat, new application autonomous app dedicated to conversations between social users. The app is arrived on iPhone and it is also available in Italy, while at the moment there are no official indications on the release times for Android.
The move brings X directly into the territory already occupied by WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, iMessage and Messenger. A complicated market, dominated by consolidated habits and very large user networks. But XChat is trying to play a different card: it does not start from the phone numbers or the address books to be synchronized, but from the social graph of X. In other words, Those who are already connected to the platform can also be reached via chat.
X's new messaging app
XChat was born as separate application, even if the messaging function was already present in X. The novelty, therefore, is not only technical but strategic. Musk chooses to give messages a space of their own, with a dedicated app and a more defined identity.
Access is done using the same social network credentials. Once logged in, the user can chat with other profiles present on X, send files, photos and videos, participate in group chats and make audio and video calls. The platform thus aims to transform a internal function of social media in a more structured communication environment.
The launch comes after a testing phase that began in recent months and marks another step in building Musk's ecosystem around X. First the social network, then Grok for artificial intelligence, now XChat for messaging. More than a single super app, at least for now, the the project seems to proceed through distinct applications.
Privacy, disappearing messages and calls
The new app focuses heavily on privacy issueXChat promises end-to-end encryption for communications, including audio and video calls. This is complemented by features now familiar to users of competing platforms, such as the ability to edit or delete messages already sent.
Among the options provided There are also messages that automatically delete after a certain period of time, a block on screenshots, and the sending of self-destructing multimedia content. The app is also presented without advertising or any form of tracking.
The obiettivo is to build a chat that can appear more protected and more controllable than traditional communications on social media. However, it remains to be seen whether these features will be enough to convince users to move conversations that are already happening elsewhere today, especially on platforms with vastly more deeply rooted user bases.
Goodbye Communities by the end of May
XChat is not just a new messaging app. It is also the building block of X's journey to replace the Communities, the feature launched in 2021 to create thematic spaces based on common interests and topics.
The decommissioning of the Communities is expected by the end of MayThose who manage these groups will be able to convert them into group chats on XChat by May 30. The platform currently supports conversations with up to 350 participants, but the company has already indicated its intention to raise this limit to facilitate the migration of larger groups.
The choice confirms a change of direction. Communities have never become a pillar of the experience on X and involve a very small share of users, despite generating a significant portion of spam-related reports. Bringing those conversations into XChat means moving them into a context more akin to an organized chat rather than a public or semi-public section of the social network.
The super app can wait
When Musk bought Twitter and then renamed X, the ambition was much broader: create a “super App” Capable of combining social feeds, messages, payments, services, job postings, and other functions. A sort of Western model inspired by the logic of WeChat in China.
Today, however, the path seems different. Instead of concentrating everything into one application, X Corp finds itself with three separate apps: X for the public social stream, Grok for artificial intelligence and XChat for private conversations. A fragmentation which appears to be at odds with the initial promise of the super app, although it cannot be ruled out that these components could be integrated back into a single platform in the future.
The point is strategic. Separating functions can clarify the identity of individual products, but it also risks weakening the idea of a single digital environment capable of retaining the user throughout the day. For now, the "everything app" remains more of a announced direction than a finished product.
X Money is on the horizon
The next piece could be X MoneyThe service is already being tested internally among X employees and has the aim of bringing payments into the platform ecosystemA project that would closely recall Musk's personal history, one of the founders of PayPal.
The possible arrival of X Money would give greater coherence to the original vision of X as a digital environment capable of uniting communication, content, and transactions. But even in this case, it remains to be seen whether the service will be born as an integrated function or as a separate app.
For now, the news is XChat. Musk is entering the chat space with a product that attempts to leverage the power of the social network it was born from, but he's moving into a territory where competitors are giants and where the real challenge isn't just offering new features. It's convincing people to change their habits.
