X officially launches X Chat

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After testing it with beta users over the last month, X has launched its separate X Chat app, providing a dedicated home for X DMs, as well as a new way for users to engage outside of the main app.

The X Chat app is now available for iOS, which X is promoting as having no ads and no tracking. 

As per Apple’s App Store description: “Privacy is the foundation. Every message is end-to-end encrypted with a key pair unique to you, protected by a PIN that never leaves your device.”

“No one can read your conversation,” the explanation reads. “Not even X.”

Which may not be entirely true.

X has had several issues in its development of end-to-end encryption, with various researchers highlighting potential vulnerabilities and flaws in the system X is using.

In November last year, software engineer David Nepozitek published an overview of X’s encryption system on his blog, and outlined several security flaws with the process.

As explained by Nepozitek: “X Chat encrypts messages using a shared secret called a conversation key. This key is generated at the start of the conversation and then used to encrypt all messages in that conversation. The problem is that this conversation key basically never changes. That makes all the potential attacks way worse. If the conversation key is ever compromised, all past and future messages can be decrypted.”

Following the X Chat launch announcement on Friday, iOS development team Mysk reiterated these concerns, saying in an X post that “XChat’s claim of ‘end-to-end encrypted’ chats is misleading at best,” due to weaknesses in the foundational structure of its encryption.

Mysk said that X Chat’s encryption is vulnerable to the controlling entity, meaning that X itself could read messages shared in the app if it chose.

Potential security issues aside, the new X Chat app will provide another way for X users to access their DMs, and engage with each other in a separate forum outside the main X app.

It could also play an important role in X securing payments licensing, which would then clear the way for the next big evolution of X.

X owner Elon Musk has repeatedly outlined his vision for an all-in-one “everything app,” a social media platform that could facilitate payments, money transfers, and indeed, all sorts of financial transactions in a single place.

Separating X DMs into another app does seem to run somewhat counter to this, in that X is creating a separate entity from the main application. But the supposedly enhanced security measures in the X Chat app could play a key role in ensuring that regulators feel confident that X can be trusted with users’ payment info, which may be enough to help X get over the line with critical approvals.

Which, thus far, has derailed the launch of X Money.

Musk originally claimed that X Money would launch in late 2024, while more recently, Musk set April 2026 as a definitive launch date.

But while X has gained payment transmitter approval in most U.S. states, which is the first step towards facilitating payments in-stream, some key jurisdictions have rejected X’s application, citing concerns with its funding partners and ownership.

Without approval, X can’t launch X Money in the U.S., and it’s apparently not looking to expand the option to any other markets before a U.S. release.

As such, X needs to win over regulators as a first step, and maybe, a separate X Chat app will help with this.

Or it may just be another step in X seeking to become a more valuable tool for its users.

Either way, it’s another option to consider for those who rely on X DMs.