Elon Musk promises audio and video calls on X but does not mention deadline

X owner Elon Musk promised that video and audio calling capabilities that do not require a phone number will be coming to the platform formerly called Twitter

In the past, the X chief has promised features that arrived only after delays [File] | Photo Credit: AP

X owner Elon Musk said on Thursday that video and audio calls would come to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, but did not mention a deadline for the update or a time frame for its expected release.

Musk claimed that the feature would be unique as the audio and video calls would work on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC and that no phone number would be needed. He also added that X is the “effective global address book.”

In response to an account which asked if the calls would be encrypted, Musk said this would not be the case at first but there would later be a choice to turn encryption on and off “dynamically.”

“There is necessarily a slight lag for encryption. Most of the time, encryption isn’t important and quality of call is better,” he further said on Friday.

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The Meta-owned messaging service WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption; a feature which the Facebook parent is trying to bring to its Messenger service. However, Meta said the process is complex and would require time as well as rewriting large amounts of code in order to make it work.

In the past, the X chief has promised features that arrived only after delays - such as the ad revenue payment sharing scheme for X Premium users - or floated ideas unlikely to go down well with users - such as removing the option to block accounts on X.

There is not yet a formal statement on the audio/video calling feature’s rollout. However, X on Friday announced that iOS and Android users could swipe messages to reply when using the direct message (DM) feature.