• by Colin Kirkland , 3 hours ago

X has announced the launch of “Chat,” the social media network’s encrypted direct messaging feature, which follows X owner Elon Musk’s trajectory of turning what was formerly be Twitter into an “everything app” based on China’s successful WeChat platform.

According to a post from X, Chat features end-to-end encrypted messaging and file-sharing similar to that of established DM-based services such as Telegram, Signal and Meta’s Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

Chat allows users to edit, delete, and "disappear" messages with the choice to block screenshots of their messages. 

In 2022, shortly after Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X, he posted: “The goal of Twitter DMs is to superset Signal.”

But direct messaging is popular among users, creators and consumers across platforms. 

In October, three billion users were reportedly using the WhatsApp messenger feature at least monthly, while WeChat reported 1.41 billion users and Facebook Messenger and Snapchat each amassed over 930 million global users, per Statista.

As a result, more social media platforms are integrating ads into users’ DM and chat hubs, including Meta’s AI-powered messaging ad options and Snapchat’s “Sponsored Snaps” format. Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his opinion that messaging between brands and consumers “should be the next pillar of our business,” highlighting potential opportunities for brands to converse with customers over DMs. 

However, X’s post clearly states that Chat will include “no ads.”

Instead of creating an ad-based revenue stream with its revamped messaging hub, X seems to be following Musk’s vision of transforming the platform into a Western version of WeChat -- the China-based app on which billions of people chat, grocery shop, text, video conference, play games, follow the news, and make digital payments.

“If you're in China, you kind of live on WeChat,” Musk has said in the past. “It does everything – sort of like Twitter, plus PayPal, plus a whole bunch of things, and all rolled into one, with a great interface. It's really an excellent app, and we don't have anything like that outside of China.”

Along with Chat, X is also developing a payment feature called “X Money,” flagged in June for potential debit card functionality included in its code.