X starts testing a standalone X Chat messaging app for iOS users

Social platform X is moving its private messaging product, called X Chat, into a standalone app. On Monday, the company said the first beta version of the X Chat app was being rolled out to thousands of early users through Apple’s TestFlight platform.

The beta filled up just two hours after the announcement. In a post on X, xAI product designer Michael Boswell said the company planned to expand access beyond the initial 1,000 users “soon.” After the story was published, Boswell added that the beta was being expanded 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. “Use it. Break it. We want your feedback,” he said.

X Chat is the company’s upgraded version of X’s current direct messaging system, which X says is end-to-end encrypted. Security researchers have cautioned users that X Chat is not as secure as other encrypted messaging apps, such as Signal, and should not be treated the same. It is not yet clear whether the company has addressed those concerns in the new standalone app version.

The release of the app marks a noticeable shift away from X owner Elon Musk’s earlier vision of turning X into an “everything app” that would combine messaging, payments, creator tools, and other services into one central platform.

A small number of early testers have already started posting screenshots of the app’s interface. One user reported that the beta version styled the name as xChat instead of X Chat, which could indicate a possible rebrand. Others shared images from inside the app, including a login screen featuring a star-filled background.

Early testers have described the app as offering a cleaner, smoother experience for X Chat than messaging in the main X app. The current beta does not yet include message requests, though Boswell said that feature is now being rebuilt. Other tools still under development include verified badges and support for calling, among other additions.

xAI’s Grok also responded to questions about the new app on X, confirming a few more details, including that the app’s age rating will match X itself at 17+ on the iOS App Store, and that chats will sync across the X app and the chat.x.com web app, which launched in December 2025.

The AI chatbot also said that an Android version of the X Chat app is expected to arrive “very soon.”