Last month, Elon Musk pushed Twitter through a rebranding, with the platform now known simply as X. This is part of his desire to turn it into an “everything app”, similar to the way WeChat is for its home in China. Though one element is conspicuously missing from the equation, which is the ability to make video calls. That is apparently coming soon, according to X CEO Linda Yaccarino.
This revelation came as part of a broarder interview with American news network CNBC, with a short clip of it being posted to X. Even then, the clip talks mostly about the motivations of the rebranding from Twitter, with the bit on video calls being a passing mention. The exact quote from Yaccarino is “Soon, you’ll be able to make video chat calls without having to give your phone number to anyone on the platform”.
“The rebrand represented really a liberation from Twitter,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino tells @SaraEisen. “A liberation that allowed us to evolve past a legacy mindset.” https://t.co/rGXVhef6PL pic.twitter.com/v4xr9IH5X0
— CNBC (@CNBC) August 10, 2023
Naturally, if the conversation surrounds an “everything app” a la WeChat, then it’s not a complete discussion without talking about payments. That has also been mentioned in passing, though described as part of the process of liberating the brand from its old Twitter identity. Though considering the history of Elon Musk with PayPal, that’s not entirely surprising.
The short clip does not reveal when video calls will be a thing on X. Though the bigger question when it does become available would probably be if it’s something that is accessible to all users, or if it will be a feature that is locked away behind a subscription. After all, the company is already locking a number of other features behind its paywall, like the ability to edit posts as well as posting well past the usual character limit, among others.
(Source: CNBC / X)
