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Title: X is 'pausing' encrypted DMs

Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 21:57:50 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-is-pa...

X users can no longer send encrypted messages on the platform. The company
said in an update that it's "pausing" the feature "while we work on making
some improvements." Users will still be able to view previously-sent
encrypted chats, but won't be able to send any new ones.

Up to now, encrypted DMs have been available only on messages between
verified users who are mutual or who have previously accepted DMs from each
other. Screenshots of the feature from X's help center labeled it as "early
access." (Notably, there were a number of other important caveats to X's
encryption, even when it was working, including the fact that encryption was
never available for group chats, multimedia messages or metadata .)

It's unclear when the feature will be available again or if the "pause" has
anything to do with "XChat," the company's yet-to-be-launched chat platform.
X employees have been dropping hints about XChat, which will reportedly
feature encrypted direct messages, for some time. Screenshots from leakers
suggest XChat could have additional security features like PIN-protected
chats.

Officially, though, X hasn't revealed much about XChat or what's going on
with the current version of encrypted DMs. X's in-app inbox was one of the
features that experienced numerous issues last week after a site-wide outage
ΓÇö possibly due to a fire at an Oregon facility used by the company ΓÇö
caused days of technical problems for the service. Updates on the company's
developer platform page indicate some of those issues have yet to be
resolved.

X didn't respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-is-pa...
215750222.html?src=rss

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