Elon Musk revealed on Sunday that XChat, the social media platform’s new direct messaging (DM) feature, will offer Bitcoin-style encryption. Currently available in beta on X (formerly known as Twitter), XChat is a new offering for paid subscribers. Apart from encryption, the messaging tool will also come with vanishing messages, audio and video calling capability, and support for file-sharing. The social media platform has not revealed when XChat will be widely rolled out to eligible users at this time.
XChat is Based on the Rust Programming Language
In a post on X, Musk shared more details about the platform’s under-development messaging tool. XChat is built on the Rust programming language, which is designed for safety and speed. It was originally developed by Mozilla Research and has gained wide popularity in recent times. It is used by platforms such as Dropbox, Cloudflare, and Discord.
The billionaire entrepreneur also mentioned that XChat will offer “Bitcoin-style encryption.” It is sort of a misnomer, given that Bitcoin does not have any encryption inherently. However, the platform likely comes with the cryptographic techniques that underpin Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Until XChat is released, the application of this technique cannot be clearly stated.
Apart from this, the post also highlights that XChat will support vanishing messages. This feature is already available on WhatsApp and Instagram where messages disappear after a certain period when the mode is turned on. Additionally, the DM feature will also support cross-platform audio and video calling. However, Musk did not clarify the name of the platforms that will support this.
Notably, XChat will exclusively be available to the X Premium subscribers. The paid subscription has three tiers, namely Basic, Premium, and Premium+. It is unclear which tiers will get access to the DM feature.
Last week, the official handle of X Engineering posted that the platform was indefinitely pausing the encrypted DMs feature to make “some improvements.” It is believed that the feature was being stopped to push XChat. Currently, the DM feature is available in beta to testers, and the company is yet to start rolling it out widely.