Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, plans to launch video and audio calls as owner Elon Musk races to build an “everything app” to stay ahead of competition from Meta Platforms-owned Threads.
Users will not need a phone number for the features that will be available on Apple‘s iOS, Google‘s Android and personal computers, Musk said in post on X on Thursday. He also plans to make X an effective global address book.
He did not give a timeline for the launch.
After rebranding Twitter as X, Musk signaled he would turn the platform into a super app offering a range of services from messaging and social networking to peer-to-peer payments.
The vision brings to mind Tencent’s WeChat app — a ubiquitous part of daily life in China.
Musk, who continues to spearhead product development at X after appointing a new CEO in May, is also pushing to change how news links appear on the platform in a move that could undermine the reach of news publishers.
A few days back, X also acquired a currency transmitter licence, suggesting that the site could soon support processing payments in crypto as well as fiat currencies. With this license, X gets permit to facilitate custody, transfer, and exchange of digital currencies.
To recall, Musk acquired Twitter in October last year, and tweeted at the time that “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” The “everything app”, as he explained, would be a super all-in-one app like WeChat, which can be used for multiple things including booking rides, sending money, and making payments, apart from facilitating day-to-day communications.