Twitter to launch encrypted direct messages, video chat

Elon Musk said Twitter may launch encrypted direct messages on Wednesday, as the CEO outlined plans to boost communication features on the social media service.

The latest version of the Twitter app contains changes to direct messages, or direct messages — the non-public messages users send to each other, Musk said in a tweet late Tuesday.

The CEO said that users can now reply to any message in a DM thread, not just the most recent one, and also use any emoji to reply to a message. Previously, users were only able to reply to the most recent message in a DM thread and only reply with specific emojis.

Musk also announced that encrypted direct messages “should” be released on Wednesday.

Encryption in messages means that only the sender and receiver can see the message. In theory, Twitter and Musk wouldn’t be able to see or intercept direct messages between people.

“The acid test is I couldn’t see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head,” Musk tweeted.

Facebook parent meta It said in January that it was expanding testing of virtual end-to-end encryption for its Messenger service. WhatsApp, the other messaging app owned by Meta, has had end-to-end encryption for several years.

Encrypted messaging services have increased in popularity in the past few years as users focus more on privacy.

Musk also said that voice and video calling will soon be added to Twitter so users can “talk to people anywhere in the world” without giving them a phone number.

Since the inception of Twitter, the development of the direct message feature has not received much attention from the former CEOs. But Musk has indicated several times his intention to make Twitter “the go-to for everything” from messaging to financial services.

New Twitter features Musk’s promises aren’t always delivered on time. In February, he said Twitter would introduce a feature to share advertising revenue with creators on the platform. This has not happened yet.