Musk just went and tweeted that Twitter’s new mobile app will release encrypted DMs (direct messages) tomorrow (11th of May).
For now, the mobile app has a few more capabilities:
- DM replies to any messages in a thread, and not just the most recent one
- Use of any emoji reaction in a thread
Musk also wants to add voice and video chat capabilities so that you can talk to anyone in the world without using your phone number. Kind of like WhatsApp and Skype.
Message encryption, if it is end-to-end encryption, would mean that not even Twitter would be able to see the content of those messages. Musk himself seems to acknowledge this by saying that “The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head.“
Encryption messaging has become ever so popular in past years, and even Meta has announced that they’re looking into it for their Messenger app.
WhatsApp, another of Meta’s platforms, has had end-to-end encryption for its messages for several years now, and the feature is increasing in popularity among users.
Combined with voice and video calls, the Twitter mobile app could grow into a veritable communication hub for many socialites.
Musk had previously claimed that, once he buys Twitter, he intends to turn it into an “everything app“, taking inspiration from Chinese super apps like WeChat.
Back in November of 2022, Musk even said that he would add financial capabilities to Twitter to increase its competitiveness with other similar apps.
As we know, this hasn’t happened yet because of Twitter’s near-bankruptcy situation currently unfolding but it’s not unexpected for Musk to roll out such features in the future.
But we also know that Musk’s promises don’t always come to fruition. Back in February 2023, he said that Twitter would introduce a feature that lets you share ad revenue with other creators on the platform.
It still hasn’t been introduced, and there are no more mentions of it. Instead, Musk seems to have refocused his attention on direct messaging. That’s not such a bad thing, after all.
