Twitter may launch encrypted messaging Wednesday after CEO Elon Musk teased the feature this week.
Mr. Musk tweeted on Tuesday that the latest version of the Twitter mobile app will have encrypted messages. That means only people sending and receiving direct messages can see them. Twitter can’t see the content of messages sent between users.
With latest version of app, you can DM reply to any message in the thread (not just most recent) and use any emoji reaction.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
Release of encrypted DMs V1.0 should happen tomorrow. This will grow in sophistication rapidly. The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if…
In the same tweet, Mr. Musk announced several smaller changes to Twitter’s direct messages. Users will apparently be able to reply to any message, not just the most recent, and can react to messages with any emoji.
Mr. Musk also floated a new feature for the platform: voice and video chat. He said in the announcement that it will let people talk to anyone in the world “without giving them your phone number.” He did not give an exact date on when the new chat features would roll out.
Twitter’s messaging feature has not developed much since it was introduced to the platform. However, Mr. Musk has been trying to turn Twitter into an “everything app,” meaning users eventually could shop, communicate and consume media all in one place. Recently, Twitter partnered with eToro to make it easier to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies.
Encrypted messages are not new to social media apps. WhatsApp has had message encryption for years.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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