Elon Musk Launches $44B X Chat to Take on WhatsApp and Telegram
Elon Musk is preparing to launch X Chat, a fully encrypted messaging app designed to challenge WhatsApp and Telegram.
Quick overview
- Elon Musk is set to launch X Chat, a fully encrypted messaging app aimed at competing with WhatsApp and Telegram, emphasizing user privacy without advertising.
- Musk criticized existing messaging platforms for compromising privacy for profit, highlighting vulnerabilities in their data handling practices.
- X Chat will feature a fully encrypted communications network for texting, file sharing, and calls, designed to eliminate privacy vulnerabilities found in current apps.
- The app will be available as both an integrated feature within X and as a standalone application, supporting Musk's vision of a comprehensive digital ecosystem.
Elon Musk is preparing to launch X Chat, a fully encrypted messaging app designed to challenge WhatsApp and Telegram. Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Musk confirmed that the app will roll out “within the next few months,” and emphasized its core mission: absolute privacy with no advertising hooks.
“On X, we just rebuilt the entire messaging stack into what’s called X Chat,” Musk explained. Unlike conventional messengers, he said, X Chat “won’t sell or share user data with advertisers.” The billionaire likened its encryption model to the Bitcoin blockchain, where security is built on decentralized principles rather than ad-driven data collection.
Musk criticized existing messaging platforms, claiming they often compromise privacy for profit. “If a service knows enough about what you’re texting to target ads, that’s a massive vulnerability,” he said, warning that such systems could expose users to potential data breaches.
WhatsApp’s Encryption Under Scrutiny
While WhatsApp asserts that all messages are end-to-end encrypted using the Signal Protocol, critics say the app still gathers significant metadata — such as contact frequency and chat timestamps — that can reveal personal communication patterns.
Moreover, backup copies of chats stored on cloud services are not automatically encrypted, creating another weak spot for potential privacy breaches.
Key privacy concerns with WhatsApp include:
- Unencrypted metadata revealing chat frequency and contacts
- Optional, not automatic, chat backup encryption
- Data sharing with Meta subsidiaries under certain integrations
WhatsApp’s FAQ claims it does not “collect or sell data,” but admits to sharing select information with Meta to “improve and support” related services — a practice privacy advocates have long criticized.
X Chat to Set New Privacy Benchmark
Musk promises that X Chat will eliminate these vulnerabilities entirely. The system, he said, is being designed as a “fully encrypted” communications network, capable of supporting texting, file sharing, voice, and video calls without relying on any advertising or data-tracking framework.
“I’m not saying it’s perfect,” Musk added, “but our goal with X Chat is to make it the least insecure messaging system ever built.”
The app will launch both as an integrated feature within X (formerly Twitter) and as a standalone application for global users. If successful, it could mark a pivotal shift toward user-controlled communication — one where privacy, not profit, becomes the foundation of digital messaging.
Musk’s move also aligns with his broader $44 billion X platform vision: to transform it from a social media network into an all-in-one digital ecosystem for communication, finance, and media.
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