X (Formerly Twitter) Is Getting Rid of DMs… Maybe

Is Twitter/X getting rid of DMs?

A software engineer at X (formerly Twitter) went viral Tuesday (April 15) after seemingly sharing that the social media platform intends to get rid of its direct messaging (i.e. DMs) feature, which allows users to privately communicate with each other one-on-one on the app.

"No, not like request messages but like the whole entire DMs will be gone soon," the employee tweeted in response to another user who asked if X users will still be able to send message requests to each other after they had encountered an issue in their DMs.

The statement led many to believe that X plans to dump its direct messaging ability entirely.

However, in a separate tweet, another X employee clarified that the social media site won't be getting rid of direct messages entirely, but rather that they are working on "a rewrite, not getting rid of the feature."

"Guys, obviously X would not delete messaging. Rewrite instead," the original X employee who sparked the confusion corroborated in a follow-up tweet.

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Meanwhile, Dexerto reports that the platform's current direct messaging system might soon be replaced by something called XChat, which is a new private messaging system supposedly being developed at X.

If leaks are to be believed, XChat would allow users to send each other files such as PDFs, voice memos and even delete messages for all users involved in a conversation, among other allegedly planned features and options such as fully encrypted messages.

As one user put it, it would be "like the current DMs but with more features."

It's unclear if old DMs currently saved in users' inboxes will remain or be deleted when X initiates its rewrite and/or switches to XChat.