X is launching an encrypted chat product that brings its direct message feature out of the analog age, transforming it into a smoother and more secure platform.
The function introduces file sharing and message editing and deletion, as well as timed disappearing messages and the ability to control who can take screenshots of chat threads — with voice reactions and a wider suite of calling features up next. The company is also Signaling that a standalone messaging app may be in the wings, putting X more directly up against WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram.
New Mobile Privacy Features and Messaging Tools
New Chat mode to send documents, images, and other files is stocked alongside regular text. Messages can be edited or deleted, and chats can be programmed to autodelete after a user-specified time — features that have quickly become table stakes in secure messengers targeting both personal and professional audiences.
And interestingly, X is adding controls to prevent screenshots and warn you when someone tries to record a chat. Though no app can prevent a photo of the screen taken with another device, the native screenshot friction and alerts in Jumbo add both practical and behavioral security confetti akin to methods employed in Signal and Snapchat that prevent code from being used to make screenshots quickly.
X says old DMs are still available in a centralized inbox, making the move easier. The release is already live on iOS and the web, with Android support to come. Voice note support is being tested, and executives have talked about incorporating audio and video calls in the encrypted system.
How X’s encrypted chat compares with messaging rivals
WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption by default with the open-source Signal Protocol, a move that contributed to making powerful encryption mainstream among its multibillion-user base. Meta recently rolled out default end-to-end encryption for Messenger and Instagram direct messages too. More private alternatives include the Signal app — a favorite among cryptographers from way back — which protects against screenshots and offers vanishing messages and tools like Safety Numbers to verify devices.
Telegram is still widely used for its features like chat groups with thousands of members, but its standard chats aren’t secure or even end-to-end encrypted by default — although it offers a temporary solution in Secret Chats, which are fully encrypted on a device-to-device basis. That design sets it apart from WhatsApp and Signal in the default privacy properties. For context: WhatsApp announced about two billion users worldwide, Telegram has said publicly that it has hundreds of millions of monthly users, and Signal earns a place serving a smaller but influential privacy-first community. X, whose social graph has intense real-time usage, is betting that secure messaging built around identity and public conversation can convert meaningful share.
Claims About Encryption and Open Questions
X is calling the system peer-to-peer and has likened elements of what it’s doing to cryptographic models that have become popularized with cryptocurrency. What does or does not matter for security practitioners is the specifics: How is the protocol designed, how are keys managed, what guarantees there are in terms of forward secrecy — what is being done to minimize metadata retention — and how multi-device sessions, backups, group chats work. The best practices in this area are public documentation, independent audits (such as by NCC Group), open-source client implementations, and bug bounties with a specific scope.
Users should seek a device verification feature, a clear sign of encryption status and an open discussion about what is — and is not — encrypted. Even those little defaults, like whether message search touches encrypted content or a policy of not being able to decrypt cloud backups unless you have the key, can be quite determinative as far as what the model might say about privacy. Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, for their part, have long stressed the nuances in their secure messaging guides.
A standalone X messaging app hints at a larger strategy
In an appearance on a recent podcast, X’s owner said the encrypted messenger could be released as an independent app. Separating chat from the main feed would follow patterns that other platforms have followed for better onboarding, app store discovery, and notification reliability, while giving room to focus on a specific roadmap around business messaging and commerce.
The move is also in line with X’s wider “everything app” ambitions. In China and other markets, WeChat’s convergence of messaging, payments, and services has demonstrated how a unifying identity layer can serve as a powerful ingredient for daily life. A secure standalone messenger tightly integrated with X accounts and potentially payments would be a key building block in that strategy — especially if it supported verified businesses, customer support flows, rich media calling.
What to watch next as X expands encrypted messaging
On the product side: a full Android release, voice notes, and reliable end-to-end encrypted calling on every platform. On the security front: a technical white paper, third-party audits, and straightforward reporting on how metadata will be handled and on key transparency. On the supply side: whether creators, brands, and communities move more private conversations into X’s ecosystem and whether the company can convert social reach to daily messaging habit.
If X can provide credible, independently vetted encryption while preserving the seamless transition between public posts and private chats, it will have a value proposition that’s truly different from texting. The next few release cycles — particularly documentation and developer tooling — are going to decide whether this is a headline feature, or merely the newest durable pillar of the platform.
