X rolls out opt-out audio and video calling to some users, who can allow incoming calls from users in their address book, users they follow, and Premium users
EngadgetStephanie Barnes
Context & Ripple Effects
X had framed calling without a phone number as part of making the platform an effective global address book. This limited rollout turns that positioning into a product feature while making caller eligibility and shutdown controls central to its use.
The feature subsequently moved beyond its initial audience in a broader rollout to all users, making this early permissions design consequential for how calling is introduced across the service.
First-order effects
Some users gain native audio and video calling, while retaining the ability to turn it off rather than accept incoming calls unconditionally.
Incoming-call access is segmented among address-book contacts, followed accounts and Premium users, giving recipients immediate control over which existing relationships can reach them.
Second-order effects
Users may treat follows and address-book connections as communications permissions, raising the practical value of those relationship signals beyond feed curation.
Premium status becomes part of the calling-access model, alongside social and contact-based eligibility, tying a core communications feature to X’s subscription layer.
Third-order effects
X is testing whether a social network’s identity and relationship graph can support phone-number-free communications; sustained adoption would push the product further from a feed-only service.
The viability of that shift depends on safety and privacy defaults: later reporting that calls were peer-to-peer and could expose IP addresses without an enhanced setting underscores the trust burden created by broadening reachability.
The trend: Social platforms are increasingly using their account and relationship graphs to layer private communications services on top of public networks.
What remains deeply funny about Musk's dreams of turning X into the western world's “super app,” like China's WeChat, is that even if he had product instincts that aren't driving away his advertisers and userbase, he still couldn't build it because the terms of Apple and Google's…
FYI. Twitter or “X” or whatever just added video and audio calling and made it so your default settings are that anybody can call you. If that doesn't appeal to you, you need to go into your settings and disable it. Which I recommend.
So Twitter/X decided to give us the wonderfully awful gift of audio & video calling. If you don't want random strangers/weirdos calling you at all hours of the day (like I get on FB) I suggest you turn those settings off ASAP. [image]
Saw something on another social media site saying Twitter, er X, has rolled out audio & video calling as the default. You may want to check your account settings. [image]
BREAKING: X Video Calls and Audio Calls are here! Here is how you can start calling people on X if they want you to. Step 1) Update App Steo 2) Go to Settings > Privacy & Safety > Direct Messages > Enable Audio & Video Calling. Step 3) Click to DM someone. In the upper... [video]