X Hits Pause on Encrypted DMs Feature, Citing Need for Improvements
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, announced on Thursday that it is temporarily suspending its encrypted Direct Messages (DMs) feature to implement key improvements. The announcement was made via the company’s engineering account on X.
According to the official statement, while users can still access their existing encrypted message history, the ability to send new encrypted DMs has been disabled. X has not yet provided a timeline for when the feature will be reinstated.
The move comes after Elon Musk, following his acquisition of Twitter, expressed ambitious plans to revamp direct messaging on the platform, with the aim of rivaling privacy-focused messaging apps like Signal. These plans involved implementing end-to-end encryption for DMs.
X launched encrypted DMs for verified users in 2023. However, the initial implementation had several limitations. As reported by TechCrunch, the feature was not available for group chats and only supported encryption for text and links, excluding media files. Further, the initial rollout lacked robust protection against man-in-the-middle attacks, and encrypted conversations were not transferable to new devices.
The pause suggests that X is working to address these shortcomings and enhance the security and usability of its encrypted DMs feature. Users are advised to follow X’s engineering account for further updates on the feature’s re-release.
