X rolls out its Signal-like encrypted chat feature

The site formerly known as Twitter has killed what were formerly known as Twitter DMs, in favor of something new.

Elon Musk’s X has finally rolled out Chat, a replacement for the DM tab that has been located at the bottom right of the Twitter app for many years. All your old DMs and group chats are still there, but there have been some changes. It’s all end-to-end encrypted now; you can edit and delete messages, and even set them to disappear after a certain amount of time, similar to Signal. X claims this is all for the sake of privacy, of course.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

All of this came along with a UI makeover as well. While added privacy is, in concept, a very good thing, I should note that many longtime Twitter power users in my life are dismayed by these changes. Finding existing chats in the web browser version of X is now more challenging than it used to be, and changing the names of group chats has also become difficult, if not impossible. The mobile app version of Chat is also noticeably slower than what was there before, in my experience. One of my longtime group chats has already started the process of migrating to Discord.

However, it’s now Elon Musk’s site, and he can do with it as he pleases. Maybe Bluesky will finally add group chats one of these days.