Musk’s super application ambition is about to take a crucial step. On April 17, XChat, an independent encrypted chat application owned by X, will be officially launched, and reservations are now open on the Apple App Store. This is regarded as the core product of X’s “WeChatization”.Mainly "no ads, no tracking, end-to-end encryption", trying to reconstruct the global private communication landscape.

But beneath the hustle and bustle, there is a lot of controversy. "Daily Economic News" reporters reviewed official statements and other documents and found that XChat's so-called "end-to-end encryption" is not what the public understands, and "complete privacy" is greatly compromised.

After four years of sharpening a sword, “Musk’s version of WeChat” is coming

According to the App Store page and X official announcement, XChat is an independent iOS application and is not embedded in the main X application.Supports iOS 26 and above systems, providing 46 languages ​​including English and Simplified Chinese.

XChat focuses on "independent chat space", emphasizing "no advertising, no tracking and end-to-end encryption", and supports cross-device chat and calls. The preview page also shows that it is moving closer to mainstream communication tools, with features including anti-screenshot, destructive after reading, group chat and video calling.


XChat is a key step that Musk has been planning for four years to move closer to WeChat and create a Western version of a "super app."

⚫ October 2022: Musk acquires Twitter (later renamed X) for US$44 billion,It is clearly stated that he wants to create a “all-purpose application” like WeChat;

⚫ May 11, 2023: The X platform opened early encrypted private messages to paid authenticated users, becoming the prototype of XChat, but it does not support group chats, can only encrypt text and links, and cannot synchronize encrypted chat records across devices;

⚫ May 29, 2025: X suddenly suspended the encrypted private message function, claiming that it would "make some optimization improvements", and the XChat internal beta version was pushed to test users the next day;

⚫ June 2, 2025: Musk announced the launch of a new version of XChat, emphasizing new features such as automatic message destruction, encryption, file sending, and audio and video calls. He even claimed to use a "Bitcoin-style" encryption scheme, but it immediately triggered technical doubts.

⚫ March 3, 2026: The independent version of XChat starts iOS testing.The first batch of 1,000 test places were sold out two hours after the release, and officials later expanded the test scale to 5,000 people.Security controversies broke out simultaneously. Experts warned that XChat is not as secure as other encrypted private messaging applications such as Signal and is not trustworthy.

The dual ambitions behind XChat

Behind the iteration from auxiliary functions to independent applications, the debut of XChat hides Musk’s long-awaited ambitions.

As early as the beginning of the acquisition of Twitter, Musk had a clear goal: he hoped to rely on X's huge user base to promote digital payments and in-app financial transactions. He wants to turn X into an "upgraded version of WeChat" outside China, a super platform integrating all functions such as chat, payment, life services, and content dissemination.

In January 2025, Visa reached a cooperation with X to provide X users with direct-connect payment solutions; on March 10, 2026, media reported that

These clearly show that X hopes to put messaging, payment, social networking and more services into the same system. XChat is the most basic part of Musk's "all-round application" strategy: building XChat into a communications infrastructure that can handle file transfers, calls, group chats and even future transactions, keeping users in their own ecosystem.


Musk said "X will become the app that does everything" Image source: X Platform

For Musk's AI ambitions, XChat has greater strategic significance.

When xAI acquired X in March 2025, some media reports pointed out that the transaction may help xAI products (ie Grok) gain stronger training and distribution capabilities.

For AI products to achieve sustainable development, it is not enough to have models; they must also have a stable and continuous entrance. X itself is a platform with approximately 500 million monthly active users. Once XChat becomes a high-frequency chat portal, it will provide a natural foothold for Grok. Users do not need to specifically open another AI application to directly contact Grok in the chat scene.

In this way,Grok gains not only exposure, but also a large amount of real, continuous, contextual usage scenarios and data feedback.

There are loopholes in the “complete privacy, no tracking” promotion

But this high-profile product has also faced its fair share of controversy.

From the perspective of publicity, XChat is a product that has “security” and “privacy” engraved into its genes. But if you open the official documents and safety instructions, you will find that the reality is far "skinny" than the propaganda.

XChat's encryption coverage is narrower than imagined.The official X help document clearly states that what is encrypted is the message content itself, including links, media, files and reactions; however, metadata related to the message, such as recipients, sending time, etc., are not within the scope of encryption.

Moreover, "end-to-end encryption" itself comes with obvious premises.X admitted that old messages will not be automatically converted into encrypted messages; only when the other party has also registered for XChat, subsequent new messages between the two parties will enter the encrypted state; if the user sends a message to someone who has not registered for XChat, the message will be sent in unencrypted form, and the interface will only use an unlock icon to prompt.

In other words, XChat does not form an encryption system that takes effect by default and has unconditional coverage, but an encryption mode that is only established under specific conditions.

Call privacy is also not fully enabled by default.

X provides "enhanced call privacy" to hide IP addresses, but this feature is turned off by default. If neither party in the call turns it on, the call will take a point-to-point path and the IPs of both parties may be visible to each other.

As for group calls, X's official statement is more direct: "It is not end-to-end encrypted yet."

in addition,X admitted that XChat does not have the "Forward Secure" function, which is the most critical layer of protection in mature encrypted communication products.This means that if the private key of a registered device is compromised, an attacker can decrypt all encrypted messages previously sent and received by the device. This is inconsistent with what many users understand by “end-to-end encryption.”


The official statement shows that XChat currently does not have the "forward secrecy" function.

These details all show that the "complete privacy" promoted by XChat does not mean that all communication scenarios are automatically in the highest protection state.

At the same time, the Apple App Store page shows that XChat will still collect data such as location, contact information, search history, and user identifiers.There is obviously a gap with the "no tracking" propaganda.

What's more critical is the connection method between XChat and Grok. X officials clearly wrote that if the user submits the message or picture to Grok for analysis, this part of the text or picture will "no longer be encrypted"; and if the user directly talks to the Grok assistant in Chat, although the chat interface is described as end-to-end encrypted, Grok needs to decrypt the message before it can read and respond.

X wrote in the terms of use,User interaction, input and results with Grok may be used for xAI training and fine-tuning.

In other words, once the chat enters the AI ​​processing stage, the original encryption boundary will be opened, and XChat will no longer be just a closed private communication tool, but will enter another set of data usage logic.

Amid the huge gap between publicity and reality, can Musk’s “WeChat dream” work?