X, formerly Twitter has announced that users can no longer send encrypted direct messages for the time being.
The company said this is due to ongoing efforts to improve the feature, which had been available since 2023 to users with verified status.
While people can still read their past encrypted conversations, the option to send new ones has been disabled without a clear timeline for its return.
This move was shared through the company’s engineering account on the platform.
Encrypted DMs were part of a larger plan introduced by Elon Musk after he took over the company.
Musk had earlier shared his vision to boost X’s private messaging tools and compete with services like Signal, which are known for strong privacy protection.
However, the feature has faced many limitations since launch.
It doesn’t support group chats, and only text and links are encrypted—not pictures or videos.
Messages don’t move with users to new devices, and the system lacks strong protection against some types of cyberattacks.
The decision to pause encrypted messaging adds to the list of changes happening at X as it continues to shape its identity and features under new ownership.
