Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, tweeted late Tuesday that the company will soon introduce calls and encrypted messages. The first version of encrypted direct communications should be released tomorrow. This will quickly get more sophisticated. The key factor is that even with a pistol to my head, I could not read your direct messages, he stated.
Voice and video chat from your handle to anybody using this platform will be available shortly, enabling you to communicate with individuals anywhere in the globe without giving them your phone number. “With latest version of app [sic], you can DM [direct message] reply to any message in the thread (not just most recent) and use any emoji reaction,” Musk wrote, adding that on May 10, Twitter will start encrypting direct messages on the platform. “This will grow in sophistication rapidly,” Musk said, noting that Twitter will not be able to access the encrypted messages. “The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head,” he said.
The action is being taken while Musk, who took over Twitter six months ago, searches for strategies to revive the platform’s growth. Due to declining advertising income and greater competition from rivals like Mastodon and BlueSky, both of which were created by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, the future of the company is becoming more and more dubious.
Twitter’s ability to compete with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which owns Facebook (FB) Messenger and WhatsApp, may depend on the addition of calls and encrypted chat. These platforms are used on a daily basis by billions of people to connect with friends and family, including in large gatherings. In contrast, in July of last year, Twitter had 238 million monetizable daily users.
Right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson said Tuesday he would relaunch his program on Twitter, which he praised as the only remaining large free-speech platform in the world after Fox News fired him last month. The Twitter boss has talked publicly of building an all-purpose “X” application that combines messages, payments and more. Musk recently made the tech firm part of an “X” shell corporation, getting rid of the Twitter company name but continuing to use it for the service.
