Messaging on Twitter is about to become a lot more private.
According to the company’s CEO and overlord Elon Musk, Twitter is launching “version 1.0” of encrypted direct messaging on Thursday.
This means that no one should be able to read the direct messages you send and receive on the platform unless they have your user credential. As Musk put it, “The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head.” Musk also said that encrypted direct messaging will “grow in sophistication rapidly”.
Encrypted messaging is today’s de facto standard, with major messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, Telegram, and Signal all offering some form of end-to-end encryption for messaging.
In March, Musk said encrypted messages are coming by month’s end(opens in a new tab), but his timelines are always a little stretchy, and the fact that he fired the majority of the company’s employees probably isn’t helping.
Musk also highlighted a new feature that’s already live: Users can now use any emoji reaction (instead of just a couple) on direct messages, and they can also reply with a direct message to any message in the thread (beyond just the most recent message).
Finally, the CEO said that the ability to voice and video chat with anyone on the platform is coming “soon.”
These new and upcoming options follow numerous new features Twitter has added over the last couple of months, though many of them, including the ability to edit tweets and write longer tweets, are only available to Twitter Blue subscribers. Musk didn’t say whether the upcoming features will be available to everyone or Twitter Blue subscribers only.
