In an effort to compete with WhatsApp, X has
launched an API for brands using its stand-alone X Chat messaging app, inviting businesses to automate its customer service by creating “an agent that lives in chats.”
According to X’s announcement
video, brands have the option to build an account for a chatbot designed to communicate directly with customers, similar to how businesses utilize messaging platforms like Meta’s
WhatsApp and China’s massively popular WeChat app.
In the example provided by X, Chat users can directly message a coffee shop their order:
“@baristabar can we get 4 large oat milk lattes?” The brand’s chatbot then automates a response: “You got it! It’ll be ready in 8 minutes. See you soon.”
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X envisions its API being used by brands to help customers with a variety of queries and action requests including shipping, dinner reservations, service updates and
more, with expectations to receive immediate automated responses.
The bot profile will then submit the customer orders and
queries into the brand’s workflow.
X Chat is one of two recent standalone apps stemming from X owner Elon
Musk’s “everything app” vision. It is currently unknown how many brands or users are active on the encrypted messaging platform, but inviting brands to create separate bot profiles
could theoretically multiply the app’s user base over time. That is, if the company chooses to count these chatbots in its active user reporting.
In
line with other major social media platforms, X is working to incentivize AI-powered chatbots and automation in brands’ advertising and sales practices.
Earlier this week, X launched its own MCP server, inviting advertisers to
create and edit campaigns using their preferred third-party agentic tools, such as Claude or ChatGPT.