X Rolls Out DM Editing on iOS

Against the backdrop of its varying controversies, X continues to roll out updates, with DM editing being launched for iOS users over the weekend.

As you can see in this post from X engineering lead Michael Anderson, iOS users now have the option to edit their DMs in the app, which brings X’s DM options more into line with other messaging tools.

Though it’s still a way behind on one key element, which is particularly notable given X’s focus on free speech and privacy. Despite X owner Elon Musk pledging to make encryption the default for all DMs in the app, that still hasn’t happened as yet.

Verified users have the option to activate encryption for their messages, but even Musk himself has admitted that the current system is “clunky,” though audio and video calls are encrypted by default.

Which is no real surprise. Given that Musk has also reduced the company’s staff by around 80%, the fact that some projects are taking longer to complete makes perfect sense. But there has been a noticeable reduction in the scale of the updates being rolled out at X of late, as the platform works to integrate new elements, and build itself into Elon’s “everything app” vision.

For example, over the last two months, X has continued to roll out updates at a steady pace. But the key updates of note have been:

None of these are “game changing” updates, though they do all have their own utility, depending on how people use them.

But the problem for X is that none of these features are going to be significant enough to spark an increase in interest in the app. Sure, Elon Musk wants to integrate more functionalities and options into the platform, but having half-baked versions of tools that you can already use in other apps doesn’t seem like the best path to expanding X usage at this stage.

On top of this, of course, X has also been focused on improving its Grok AI chatbot, which now has image creation capacity, while it’s still working on building payment options into the app. And it’s also still working on its all-new UI, which will see like and comment counts hidden from the main feed view.

So there are some significant updates in the works, but the pace of innovation at the app has invariably been slowed due to its staffing shift.

Though it’s still innovating more than Twitter had been, which had long been a key criticism of the app, and maybe, all of these add-on functionalities will get more people using X for a wider range of purposes over time.

It just seems like X is playing catch up on most fronts, and that the alternative options that it’s providing are not up to the level of the competition.

Maybe they don’t have to be, and maybe, DM editing will get more people using X messaging, even without default encryption.

I mean, I doubt it, but either way, you can now edit our DMs.