Elon Musk on Messaging Platform X Chat’s Features and Bitcoin-like P2P Encryption
Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk said the X will launch a standalone “x chat” in the coming months while keeping the chat embedded in the x, adding that the peer-to-peer encryption approach is “similar to bitcoin” and the system will avoid advertising hooks.
Speaking In the “Joe Rogan Experience,” Musk said that X “rebuilt the entire messaging stack” because X chat and the security dispute should be viewed in “degrees of insecurity,” not as a binary. He described a peer-to-peer-style model and said the goal was to make chat “less uncertain” than messaging apps. He added that the encryption is “very good” and is undergoing thorough testing.
Musk linked his security pitch to business design. He said rival messengers introduce risk when they include “advertising hooks,” arguing that any path used to target ads can become an avenue to read messages if abused. He said that X chat will not include such hooks.
Distribution will be dual track. “We’ll have both,” Musk said, noting a dedicated app targeted “within a few months,” along with the integrated experience within X. In either version, users should text, share files, and place audio or video calls once the full feature set lands.
The current status is more moderate. Within X today, chat functions as an upgraded replacement for legacy direct messages and is in beta for premium subscribers. In-app chat supports text, images, media attachments, GIFs, and file sharing tied to X handles instead of phone numbers. Audio and video calling were mentioned by Musk as part of the plan but will not appear in the current version of the X.
Musk’s framing centers on two ideas: Keep the Encrypted End to an end and limit what the service must know by removing the ad-targeting logic. Basic messengers often encrypt message content but preserve metadata such as addresses and timestamps; His view is that reducing reliance on advertising is narrowly attacking the surface.
