X begins testing standalone X Chat app on iOS

Social web X is bringing its backstage messaging service, dubbed X Chat, to a standalone app. The institution connected Monday said the initial beta of the X Chat app was being made disposable to 1,000 users done Apple’s TestFlight investigating platform.

The beta programme had reached afloat capableness 2 hours aft the announcement. According to an X post by xAI merchandise decorator Michael Boswell, the institution volition grow the beta beyond the archetypal 1,000 users “soon,” though helium didn’t connection an ETA.

“For the past fewer months, we’ve been softly gathering a standalone X Chat app for iOS,” Boswell wrote connected X. “Use it. Break it. We privation your feedback,” helium said.

X Chat is X’s upgraded mentation of X’s existing DM (direct messages) feature, which the institution claims is end-to-end encrypted. Security experts, however, have warned imaginable users that the X Chat work is little unafraid than different encrypted messaging apps similar Signal, and should not beryllium trusted. It’s not wide whether the institution has addressed the information community’s concerns successful the standalone app.

The instauration of the app represents a decided displacement distant from X proprietor Elon Musk’s earlier program to marque X an “everything app,” that would supply entree to messaging, payments, creator contented and more, centralizing each aspects of the service.

A fistful of aboriginal testers person begun sharing screenshots of the app’s interface. One idiosyncratic said the beta mentation of the app had stylized the sanction arsenic xChat alternatively of X Chat, which could suggest a imaginable rebranding. Others began sharing screenshots from the app, similar the login screen, which has a starry background.

Early users picture the app arsenic a simple, smoother interface for utilizing X Chat compared with the X app.

xAI’s Grok was responded to questions astir the caller app connected X, confirming different details similar the app’s age rating, which volition beryllium the aforesaid arsenic X (17+ connected the iOS App Store), and that chats would sync to the X app and the chat.x.com web app, which launched successful December 2025.

The AI chatbot besides noted that an Android mentation of the X Chat app was expected “very soon.”