Twitter/X Starts Rolling Out Audio and Video Calls

Twitter/X has started rolling out support for audio and video calls, something that Elon Musk had teased back in August. When opening the mobile app, you may see a pop-up screen informing you about the new audio/video calling capabilities, but you can turn them off immediately.

As of today, you need to have a Premium subscription to call other users, but everyone on the platform is able to receive calls. However, Premium users can only call users who have already sent them a Direct Message at least once before.

All users can control who can call them on X: You can either choose to receive calls from people in your address book, or you can restrict that to people you follow on X, or even just verified users (meaning users who pay for Premium) on the platform. These settings are available in settings for Direct Messages.

Early version of video & audio calling on 𝕏 https://t.co/aFI3VujLMh

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2023

Elon Musk said that this is just an “early version” of video and audio calling on X, but the fact that only Premium users can call other users will heavily restrict its utility. And again, the “X” brand is a bit problematic. Would you be able to say “Let’s have an X call” and not think this sounds slightly awkward? Probably not…

Anyway, this is just another brick in the “everything app” Musk wants to build with X. In addition to these private communication features, X will also soon add support for video game streaming, something that Musk recently tested himself.