Twitter successor X gets voice and video calls
Tech billionaire Elon Musk plans to introduce voice and video calls on his online platform, X. According to Musk, the feature will be available on iPhones and Android phones, as well as PCs and Apple Mac computers.
You won't have to provide a phone number to use the new feature, he said. X is like a "global address book," Musk wrote on Thursday.
The announcement fits with his plan to turn Twitter, which he bought for around $44 billion, into X, an "app for everything." Such universal apps are especially popular in China, where people use WeChat, for example, to perform everything from tasks to money transactions.
Great competition
With voice and video calls, Musk would be entering a market where there are many competitors and established user preferences. For example, there are audio and video calls on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and on all Apple devices via the company's own Facetime service.
Musk did not initially provide any details on how quickly the function will be available and whether there will be additional costs associated with it. Since the takeover in October, advertising revenues have been only half as high. Musk is therefore focusing more on the subscription business.
It is also unclear how protection against spam calls, for example, will be regulated. On X, people generally follow many people, companies, and organizations that they do not know personally - and recently, attempts by online criminals to contact users with fake profiles under the guise of well-known brands such as airlines were once again reported. (SDA)
