Twitter is preparing to launch encrypted direct messaging on Wednesday as CEO Elon Musk focuses on delivering new features for the social media platform.
Musk announced on Tuesday that the newest version of Twitter would include encrypted direct messages, meaning only the sender and receiver can see the message, and Twitter itself would have no access to private direct messages.
“This will grow in sophistication rapidly. The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
Musk said that Twitter users would also be able to respond to any message in a DM thread and use emojis to react to any private message. As of now, users can only respond to the latest message.
Facebook parent company Meta said it was expanding testing for default end-to-end encryption for its Messenger app. Its other messaging service, WhatsApp, has had end-to-end encryption for several years, according to NBC 5 DFW.
Musk also said a voice and video chat option will soon be added to Twitter, where users will be able to talk to people anywhere in the world without giving out their phone number, similar to features currently offered by Meta-owned Instagram.
The new features are a part of Musk’s intended goal of turning Twitter into an “everything app” with more robust messaging features, monetization through subscriptions, and eventually financial service tools like payments, according to CNBC.
Last month, Twitter informed its business users that it is now operating as X Corp, a name first indicated in a court filing on April 4, according to Forbes.
Elon Musk spoke about his plan to turn Twitter/X into a comprehensive service similar to WeChat in China. He said he wants to turn the app into the “biggest financial institution in the world” at a Morgan Stanley conference last month, per Forbes.
In March, Musk estimated Twitter’s value to be around $20 billion –less than half of what he originally paid for the company.
