X Now Has Its Own Chat App.
On Friday afternoon, X officially launched XChat, its own chat app. Unlike other chat apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal, XChat requires an X account, limiting its users to a specific social network. X users with a large social network presence may find this new app useful, but XChat has some security issues that all new users should be aware of.
XChat is the default chat application for X users.
XChat’s main advantage, besides being a place for X users to communicate, is its end-to-end encryption. As the app reminds you during setup, this encryption means no one, including X users, can read the contents of your messages. Only the sender and recipient (or recipients) of an encrypted message can open and read it. Furthermore, XChat prompts you to set a password before launching the app.
After launching the app, you’ll see all your private messages, laid out just like in any standard chat app. However, encryption doesn’t appear to extend to previous chats: after sending a new message, you’ll see a warning that says “This conversation is now end-to-end encrypted.” As with other chat apps, you can send audio recordings, GIFs, files, photos, or take new camera photos. By clicking on the recipient’s profile photo, you can view their profile and shared media, as well as customize the chat a bit. You can set a nickname, block screenshots, or enable disappearing messages so that chats disappear after a set amount of time.
The app itself also offers a decent level of personalization. There are standard light and dark themes, but you can also choose whether swiping left on a message “likes” it or displays information such as when the message was sent, whether it was encrypted, or when the recipient saw it. You can also choose from eight different chat app icons, which I always like.
XChat is not as private as it seems.
I fully support the addition of end-to-end encryption to XChat private messages, so there are some good points there. However, it’s a bit concerning that a messenger that positions itself as a messaging app promising privacy and “no tracking” actually collects a ton of data and links it to your identity. XChat’s privacy page states that the app reserves the right to collect your contact information, contacts, identifiers, device diagnostic data, and usage data and directly link this information to you.
This is a significant improvement over what the app collected when it was first announced , including data like location, search history, and user content. X may have adjusted these parameters after criticism, but it’s annoying that an app for “private” chat still collects so much data. However, if you’re only interested in end-to-end encryption, you can rest assured that X isn’t reading your messages.