Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina）

Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010 ）

After nearly a year of anticipation, initially scheduled for release on April 17, then postponed to the 23rd and 24th, the XChat, touted as the "Western WeChat," finally made its successful debut. However, contrary to many people's expectations, despite focusing on "encrypted communication," the message sending and receiving experience of the newly launched XChat is not much different from the private messaging on the X platform (Twitter).

Odaily Planet Daily evaluated this social application software that Musk has high hopes for and discovered some "interesting" aspects. Everyone is welcome to assess whether it can become another dark horse in Western social media after Facebook and Instagram (Thread).

Interesting Point No.1: Is End-to-End Encryption Skirting BTC?

In June last year, when Musk first teased XChat, he stated that the X platform would soon launch a new version of the chat tool XChat, which would support end-to-end encryption, self-destruct messages, arbitrary file sending, and voice and video calling functions.

Furthermore, it emphasized that XChat is developed using Rust and incorporates a crypto architecture similar to Bitcoin, with the entire architecture having been completely restructured, allowing users to make voice/video calls across all platforms without the need for a phone number. (Does it feel a lot like WeChat's voice/video?)

Although subsequently, cryptocurrency practitioners and cryptographers pointed out that the core function of Bitcoin's blockchain is not encryption in the traditional sense, Musk's statement was described as "purely leveraging."

In summary, the communication encryption technology of XChat cannot be said to be the same as that of BTC; one can only conclude that they are completely unrelated.

Interesting Point No.2: No Ads, Aiming for "One of the Safest Communication Systems"

On November 2 last year, Musk appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” (Odaily Planet Daily Note: This podcast's annual revenue is as high as $250 million, making it one of the highest-rated radio podcasts in the U.S.), where he talked for three hours.

During this, Musk pointed out that he believes the U.S. is a society that has been eroded by a "virus of thought," which was his original motivation for acquiring Twitter. His goal is to "let the truth be heard" and to build a secure social communication platform (i.e., XChat).

His original words were: “I think no communication system can be said to be ‘absolutely safe’, only that ‘levels of insecurity vary.’ XChat uses a 'peer-to-peer encryption system’, somewhat like Bitcoin's technology, with strong resistance to attacks, and we are conducting comprehensive testing. XChat has no advertising hooks, while other communication apps like WhatsApp have clickbait related to ads. They collect your chat information to push targeted ads. This is a huge security vulnerability—if an app can collect enough information to push ads, it means it has gathered a lot of private data. They say ‘don’t worry, it’s just targeted ads,’ but others can also exploit this clickbait to view your information. XChat has no advertising-related features.

I can’t say it’s absolutely perfect, but our goal is for XChat to replace the previous Twitter direct messages (Twitter DMs), becoming a completely encrypted system, which I believe will be ‘one of the safest communication systems’.”

Currently, this has been achieved to some extent, as XChat is so simple that it has no other pages, just the single 【chat】 page.

Interesting Point No.3: Screenshot Function Malfunction (?)

Before XChat's release, many people were very interested in its "screenshot prohibition" feature. According to previous internal testing versions and the settings of the officially launched application, this feature is optional.

However, based on my attempt, it seems that after enabling it, one can still directly take screenshots in the XChat group chat interface, but the screenshot only has group chat avatars and no chat content; while taking a screenshot in the X platform group chat interface will display ‘This chat is protected and cannot be screenshotted’.

Screenshot operation display interface of X platform group chat

Screenshot display interface of XChat group chat

Specific path: 【Group】-【Click group avatar】-【Prevent Screenshot】-【Enable/Disable】.

Interesting Point No.4: Supports 45 Languages, Age Rating of 16+

According to AppStore application information, XChat supports 45 languages including Chinese, German, Japanese, Russian, Korean, etc. In addition, its user age rating is 16+, meaning “contains profanity or vulgar humor, sexual content or nudity; unrestricted internet access, information and chat.” In comparison, WeChat's age rating is 13+. From this perspective, XChat's standards are higher.

Additionally, here is a detailed age rating introduction from AppStore:

18+ requirements seem somewhat broad

Interesting Point No.5: Login Interface Requires Verification of X Account-Bound Email

Contrary to pre-launch speculations, XChat's login homepage is the interface for verifying the user's X platform account-bound email. If you do not remember the email corresponding to your X account, you can check it via 【Settings and Privacy】-【Your Account】-【Account Information】; if 2FA verification was previously enabled, you will also need to enter a 6-digit verification code.

Although I also do not quite understand the reason for this operation? Is it to facilitate future user email outreach? Or for KYC policies? This remains unknown.

First glance at XChat

Interesting Point No.6: Is Encryption Just Surface-Level Work?

The previously promoted concept of “encrypted privacy” does not seem very prominent at this point.

In personal trials, the messages in XChat's interface are similar to those in the X platform group interface, just with an added display of 【Encrypted - Yes】.

As for the optional feature of 【Is Encrypted】, it is currently not displayed in this version.

Display of “Encryption” after long-pressing on message in XChat and clicking "Info"

Display interface after long-pressing a message in the X platform group chat and clicking "Info"

Interesting Point No.7: Group Message Self-Destruct Timer Ranges from 5 Minutes to 4 Weeks

In the XChat group settings, after clicking 【Disappearing Private Messages】, you can set the self-destruct duration for group messages, which can be set to: 5 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day, one week, or 4 weeks.

According to the remarks on this function interface, the duration should be calculated based on the time after group members have read the message, not from when the sender sends the message.

Specific path: 【Group Avatar】-【Disappearing Private Messages】

Interesting Point No.8: XChat Group Open Invite Link Feature

This function is relatively standard.

It is worth mentioning that XChat groups share the invite link feature with X platform groups, which, when disabled, cannot be joined by others even if they have the link.

XChat group invite link settings interface

Interesting Point No.9: The Group Size Limit for XChat May Be 1000 People

This point was mentioned previously by X platform product manager Nikita Bier in a published article, currently, the group chat capacity of XChat has not been tested in detail.

Recently, Nikita announced the migration of the original Community function of the X platform to XChat groups, and the transitional period was reminded to end by May 30.

In addition, he mentioned, “We will increase the limit of XChat group chats to 500 members, and strive to reach 1000 members in the coming weeks. This should cover all communities on X except for a few.” Of course, this seemingly taken-for-granted feature setup has drawn a lot of criticism from X platform users.

Message released by Nikita on April 23 also drew a lot of negative comments

Interesting Point No.10: The Application Icon Includes 8 Colors, and the Bubbles are Extremely Similar to WeChat Bubbles

Similar to the information displayed in the previous internal testing version, the official version of XChat also prepared icons in 8 colors: white, black, purple, green, orange, pink, gray, and yellow, for users to switch. Although it is just a small feature, it does add a rare sense of liveliness to this chat application that focuses on encrypted privacy.

Moreover, XChat's message deletion feature seems to borrow from Telegram, divided into “delete only my own” and “delete for everyone.”

Finally, the previously mentioned features like one-click import of X contacts and social network, seamless use of Grok AI, X Money payments, Cashtags, etc., have not yet been enabled.

Of course, it is only the first day since XChat went live, and there is plenty of time left for it to experiment and iterate, so let the bullets fly for a while~

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