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Social network X is bringing its private messaging service, dubbed X Chat, to a standalone app. The company on Monday said the initial beta<\/a> of the X Chat app was being made available to thousands of early adopters through Apple\u2019s TestFlight testing platform.<\/p>\n The beta program had reached full capacity two hours after the announcement. According to an X post<\/a> by xAI product designer Michael Boswell, the company will expand the beta beyond the initial 1,000 users \u201csoon.\u201d (After publication, Boswell announced<\/a> the beta was expanding to 5,000 users.)<\/p>\n \u201cFor the past few months, we\u2019ve been quietly building a standalone X Chat app for iOS,\u201d Boswell wrote on X. \u201cUse it. Break it. We want your feedback,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n X Chat is X\u2019s upgraded version of X\u2019s existing DM (direct messages) feature, which the company claims is end-to-end encrypted. Security experts, however, have warned potential users<\/a> that the X Chat service is less secure than other encrypted messaging apps, like Signal, and should not be trusted. It\u2019s not clear whether the company has addressed the security community\u2019s concerns in the standalone app.<\/p>\n The introduction of the app represents a decided shift away from X owner Elon Musk\u2019s earlier plan to make X an \u201ceverything app<\/a>,\u201d that would provide access to messaging, payments, creator content, and more, centralizing all aspects of the service.<\/p>\n A handful of early testers have begun sharing screenshots<\/a> of the app\u2019s interface. One user said the beta version of the app had stylized<\/a> the name as xChat instead of X Chat, which could suggest a potential rebranding. Others began sharing screenshots from the app, like the login screen<\/a>, which has a starry background.<\/p>\n Early users describe the app as a simple, smoother interface for using X Chat compared with the X app. The current version of the app doesn\u2019t include message requests, but Boswell says<\/a> that\u2019s being rebuilt now. Other features still in the works<\/a> include Verified badges and support for making calling, among other things.<\/p>\n xAI\u2019s Grok responded to questions about the new app on X, confirming other details, like the app\u2019s age rating<\/a>, which will be the same as X (17+ on the iOS App Store), and that chats would<\/a> sync to the X app and the chat.x.com web app<\/a>, which launched in December 2025.<\/p>\n The AI chatbot also noted<\/a> that an Android version of the X Chat app was expected \u201cvery soon.\u201d<\/p>\n