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XChat, the standalone app for accessing X’s messaging feature, is available to download now for iOS<\/a>. X first suggested it would be stripping direct messaging from X in 2025<\/a>, but at least for now, XChat is available in the original X app, the web and this new app.<\/p>\n Based on its launch video<\/a>, the new XChat app offers many of the elements of modern messaging X had already introduced to its chats feature<\/a>, like the ability to delete and edit messages, block screenshots and send disappearing messages. The new XChat app also supports video and audio calls, and X claims that all messages sent with XChat are end-to-end encrypted.<\/p>\n XChat will also be expected to be the home of any groups that formed around X’s Communities feature. The social platform recently announced<\/a> that it was retiring Communities at the end of May, and suggested that XChat’s support for larger group chats could be a worthwhile alternative. XChat’s group chats can currently have 350 participants, but X plans to expand that number in the future.<\/p>\n Elon Musk’s original pitch after he rebranded Twitter as X, was to turn the platform into an “everything app,”<\/a> where things like an algorithmic feed, messaging, job boards<\/a> and even payments<\/a> could exist side-by-side. A standalone messaging app seems like the exact opposite of that, but it might also reflect where X finds itself in 2026. The company is now a subsidiary of xAI<\/a>, and xAI itself is part of SpaceX<\/a>. Musk’s push into AI appears to be the going concern, and cloning something like WeChat might just be less important.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n