Musk accelerates push for X ‘everything app’ with plans for job listings and address books
Christopher Hutton
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Elon Musk has pushed for X, formerly known as Twitter, to compete with the broader app market by adding job listings and audio calls to its growing list of functions as part of his “everything app” strategy.
Musk promoted multiple updates on Thursday involving his vision for X and its future as an “everything app.” Musk has been eager to turn X from a social media platform into a tool that can be used for most aspects of everyday life. He has indicated he hopes to expand those features to include audio/video calls, as well as tools to compete with the job-focused social network LinkedIn.
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“People send me LinkedIn links sometimes, but the cringe level is so high that I just can’t bring myself to use it, so I ask for the resume or bio to be emailed,” Musk posted. “We will make sure that the X competitor to LinkedIn is cool.”
Musk alluded to adding such a feature in May, and the company also purchased the job-matching startup Laskie for an undisclosed sum.
That product expansion may correlate with Musk’s desire to increase data collection at the company. X updated its privacy policy to include the collection of data related to users’ jobs and education. It also requested biometric data for “safety, security, and identification purposes.” The biometric data would only be collected from premium users and would allow them to provide their government ID for identity verification, according to an X spokesperson.
X will also have video and audio calls coming to the app in the future, according to Musk. This system would work on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. It would not require users to have a phone number and would be an “effective global address book.” If this feature does come to pass, it could allow Musk to compete with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and offer an alternative to the private messaging app WhatsApp.
X’s premium users also now have the ability to hide their “Likes” tab on their profile so that the content is not visible to the public. The feature was released months after Musk was blasted on Twitter by some users for liking a tweet featuring content from the anime Death Note.
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Musk has been pushing changes to X at an accelerated rate in the last few weeks. On Aug. 18, he said he would remove the ability to block users. The billionaire also said he would remove headlines from news articles on the platform, making the details of the story harder to determine at a glance. He also throttled several links to competitors and news outlets that have published critical coverage of him.
Musk has pushed for turning X into an “everything app” similar to China’s WeChat since before he owned the company. He has taken initial steps for it to operate as an online transaction platform, improved visual hosting, enhanced direct messages, and added other features. The company will need to resolve its income problems, as it has seen its ad revenue drop by 50% in the last year.