Newsletter
X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform that we previously knew as Twitter, is adding audio and video call support to its Android app. You can now make an audio or video call to another X user directly through the app. The feature requires a Premium subscription, though.
X Android app gains calling support
Audio and video calling was one of the many new features on Elon Musk’s agenda when he purchased Twitter (he rebranded it to X later) for a whopping $44 billion in 2022. The multi-billionaire planned to transform the social network as an “everything app” and the calling feature was integral to those plans. In August last year, X’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed that the audio and video calls are coming to the app.
The new feature was eventually rolled out to iOS users in October. The company promised to soon bring calling support to the Android app but didn’t provide a timeline. The wait finally ends today. An X engineer working on the project revealed that audio and video calls are “slowly rolling out” to the X Android app. The feature should be available to everyone over the next few days. Make sure to update the app to the latest version.
Once you have updated, X will show you a pop-up banner introducing the new feature the next time you open the app. “Audio and Video calls are here!” the banner reads. It has a shortcut that takes you to the Settings page where you can enable the calling feature. If you mistakenly dismiss the banner, you can navigate to Settings > Privacy and safety > Direct Messages and turn the “Enable audio and video calling” toggle on.
Anyone can receive calls on X
While only users with an X Premium subscription can initiate a call, anyone can receive it. Even if you haven’t bought a subscription, you can receive a call from someone with a subscription. The feature should be available and enabled by both parties, though. The aforementioned settings page also lets you control who can call you.
You can only allow calls only from people in your contacts, people you follow, or all verified users on the platform. X lets you select multiple options. You might also want to enable “Enhanced call privacy” so the other party can’t see your IP address during the call. The calling feature is available with version 10.24 or higher of the X Android app. You can download the latest version from the Google Play Store.