Elon's X Rolls Out Voice and Video Calls

Elon Musk has been on a mission to transform X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) from what was once the world’s most successful microblogging platform into an “everything app”—a sort of one-stop shop of web services. In the course of this attempted transformation, Musk can brag of two primary accomplishments: A), losing the company a lot of money, and B) integrating a host of new features into the platform that nobody asked for. Said features have included YouTube-like video content, long-form writing, live streaming, the specter of crypto payments and now, it appears, voice and video calls. For paying customers, that is.

Yes, this morning, as I rolled out of bed and rubbed sleep from my eyes, I reflexively engaged in the cursed ritual of unlocking my phone and checking X/Twitter to commence with a daily doom scroll. I was immediately greeted with an ominous message: “Audio and video calls are here!” When I followed up, sure enough, Musk had tweeted out additional (if quite limited) information about the new feature: “Early version of video & audio calling on X,” Musk said, referring the viewer to a screenshot that appeared to show how to set it up.