X rolls out its Signal-like encrypted chat feature

Site formerly known as Twitter killed what used to be called Twitter DM in favor of something new.

Elon Musk's X has finally introduced Chat, a replacement for the DM tab that's been in the bottom right corner of the Twitter app for years. All your old private messages and group chats are still there, but there have been some changes. Now it's all encrypted; you can edit and delete messages and even set them to disappear after a certain time, similar Signal. X claims that this is all for the sake of privacy, of course.

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All this was accompanied by a change in the user interface. While the added privacy is inherently a very good thing, I have to point out that many of the seasoned Twitter users in my life are alarmed by these changes. Finding existing chats in web browser version X is now more difficult than before, and changing group chat names has also become difficult, if not impossible. In my experience, the mobile app version of Chat is also noticeably slower than it used to be. One of my long-standing group chats has already started the process of moving to Discord.

However, this is now Elon Musk's website and he can do whatever he wants with it. Maybe Bluesky will finally add group chats someday.