X launched a live test of its upcoming X Chat app, which will separate its DM element into a separate platform, though it will still be linked back to users’ X accounts.
In this sense, it’s a lot like Meta’s Messenger, providing a separate tool for private chats while also aligning with the main app.
The new X Chat interface, which is still in early testing, will give users access to X chats, as well as other unique messaging features to enhance the experience.
X designer Michael Boswell announced the beta test launch of the app yesterday, and said it was open to the first 1,000 users who signed up. Boswell later expanded the test to the first 5,000 users, with all testing slots quickly taken by X users.
Boswell also noted that X Chat will soon offer additional features including voice messages, calling functionality, improved message request filtering and verified badges.
Boswell added that X Chat will be linked to users’ X account activity, maintaining a link between the two platforms.
X has been working on a separate chat platform for some time, with a desktop version of its Chat app spotted in testing back in December.
A standalone mobile messaging app will build on this and provide more capacity for X to make its platform a more critical connector.
That said, the separation of its DM functionality does seem a little strange, in that X owner Elon Musk has long touted X as the “everything app,” and said the platform will eventually cater to all use cases in a single tool.
The inspiration for that “everything app” vision is how messaging apps have become critical tools in China, and Musk has repeatedly cited China-based WeChat as an example of the “everything app” approach that he intends to take in order to make X a more ubiquitous, essential tool.
WeChat links people in China to their digital identities, with users able to conduct all sorts of transactions, in addition to messaging, within the app. WeChat has become so ubiquitous, in fact, that it’s considered an essential for its billion-plus users in China.
That has excited other social media executives over the years, with Meta, TikTok, and others trying to make their platforms more universal tools for discovery and shopping in an effort to cement their platforms as key connective tools.
Yet for whatever reason, users outside of China haven’t warmed up to the “super app” approach. While users in China seem much more excited about combining functionality into a single platform, users outside of China have preferred to keep their behaviors separate, shopping in apps such as Amazon, while using Facebook to connect with friends and TikTok to watch video clips.
There are various reasons for this. The government in China exerts more control over local platforms than the governments in some other countries do, and that could add a level of assurance to such processes that users outside of China don’t have in corporate-owned social media and messaging entities. It might also be just a habitual difference, or maybe the popularity of WeChat is part of a broader push by China’s government to maximize monitoring over digital identities.
Whatever is at play, no platform has been able to convert the WeChat approach to users outside of China in any significant way yet.
X is still hoping to crack the code, and maybe a separate X Chat app is another step in this direction, further aligning X’s functions into different use cases.
The separation of X’s DM functionality could also relate to the development of X Money, its in-stream payment tool, which is yet to see a public release.
Musk made payments a key focus of his expanded vision for X, and according to The Verge, Musk had initially said that it would “blow my mind” if X didn’t have funds transfers up and running on X by the end of 2024.
But more than a year on and X Money still has no release date, though X has shared a look at the X Money platform through an unexpected source.
This week, actor William Shatner shared some screenshots of the beta version of the X Money platform, which he was given access to as part of a charity donation project.
Maybe that will be incorporated into a more protected, encrypted chat app, as opposed to the main X platform, which could potentially help X gain the final approvals it needs to launch X Money to its users.
X has been struggling to obtain money transmitter approval in some U.S. states, which is required for the launch of the functionality.
It’s possible that the launch of a separate app could align with this push, though X hasn’t shared any further insight into how it plans to meet regulatory requirements in order to take the next step.
But maybe this is all aligned, which would explain why Musk and his team are building a separate chat platform.
