X begins testing standalone X Chat app on iOS

On Monday, social media platform X announced the initial beta of its private messaging service, X Chat, as a standalone app on iOS. The company initially made the beta available to thousands of early adopters through TestFlight, Apple’s beta testing platform. The program reached full capacity two hours after the announcement, quickly filling its initial limit of 1,000 users. Following the rapid signup, Michael Boswell, a product designer at xAI (the developer of Grok), announced that the beta is expanding to 5,000 users. “For the past few months, we’ve been quietly building a standalone X Chat app for iOS,” Boswell wrote on X, adding, “Use it. Break it. We want your feedback.”

The introduction of a dedicated, standalone application represents a decided shift away from the “everything app” plan envisioned by X. The original strategy aimed to centralize multiple services—including messaging, payments, and creator content—into a single, unified interface. By spinning out its direct messaging feature into a separate app, X is moving toward a more unbundled utility model.

While X claims that the X Chat service is end-to-end encrypted, the launch has drawn immediate scrutiny from the cybersecurity community. Security experts have warned that the X Chat service is less secure than other encrypted messaging apps, like Signal, and should not be trusted. It remains unclear whether the standalone application addresses these specific security concerns.

The standalone app is described by early testers as a simpler, smoother interface for direct messaging compared to the main X application. While the current beta version lacks certain features, such as message requests, Boswell noted that this functionality is currently being rebuilt. Other features in development include Verified badges and support for calling. According to Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI, chats in the new app will sync with both the main X app and the chat.x.com web app, which launched in December 2025. Grok also confirmed that the app carries a 17+ age rating on the iOS App Store and noted that an Android version of the X Chat app is expected very soon.

Why it matters

The move suggests X is prioritizing core utility over the broader ‘everything app’ ambition, potentially changing how users interact with the platform’s messaging features.