Voice and video calls will soon be available for X (previously Twitter) users on the microblogging network.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, who made the announcement yesterday, claimed that the capabilities will put X directly in competition with social media applications like WhatsApp, Telegram, and others that provide the same services.
Users of X wouldn’t require phone numbers to place calls, according to Musk. He said the capabilities would be compatible with iOS, Android, Mac, and PC operating systems, enabling users to make calls on both their laptops and mobile devices.
Musk stated on X that: “Video & audio calls coming to X: Works on iOS, Android, Mac and PC, no phone number needed. X is the effective global address book that set of factors is unique.”
With this development, it is anticipated that the fight between Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook and Meta, who recently released the Twitter-like program Threads, will intensify.
Indeed, since taking over Twitter last October, Musk has made a number of changes to the service, including making the blue check mark a feature that requires a paid subscription, introducing community notes, monetizing content, and most recently changing the company’s name to X.
While data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) indicated that there would be 159 million Internet users in Nigeria by the end of 2023, of which 158 million would access the web via GSM, 16,897 through fixed wired infrastructure, 208,612 through Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and 328,657 through Voice over Internet Protocol, Africa Facts Zone reported that X (Twitter) had 3.05 million users at the start of this year.
South Africa topped the list of X users in Africa, according to Africa Fact Zone, with 9.3 million users. Egypt came in second place with 5.15 million users, followed by Nigeria.
Tanzania stood in sixth with 891,500 users, Kenya was fifth as of January with 1.35 million consumers, and Morocco was fourth with 2.85 million X users.
