Senators urged Apple and Google to remove Elon Musk's apps X and Grok from their stores due to the proliferation of nonconsensual sexualized images generated by Grok AI, with X making some restrictions after backlash. Despite changes, concerns remain about ongoing harmful content, and both companies' app policies prohibit such material.
The feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has boosted X's app rankings and user engagement in the U.S., with significant increases in downloads and active users, especially around the time of the breakup, while Trump’s Truth Social also saw a surge in activity, though it remains much smaller than X.
Elon Musk announced his intention to discontinue using his phone number and switch solely to using the X app for texts and audio/video calls, sparking enthusiastic reactions from the crypto community. While this move may attract more users to X, it could also raise concerns about the growing dominance of technology. Additionally, Gabor Gurbacs likened Bitcoin's resilience to Elon Musk's companies, highlighting the ongoing predictions of their demise.
The X iPhone app now supports passwordless logins with passkeys, allowing users to use Face ID, Touch ID, or their device's passcode instead of entering a password. Passkeys tie account security to the device's security by generating two cryptographic keys, with one stored on X and another locally. This feature is currently available only in the US, and X has not disclosed when it will be rolled out on Android or in other countries. Passkeys are part of a trend in major tech companies enabling passwordless logins, and they can be used across multiple devices with backup options available in case of device loss or damage.
Elon Musk's X app is rolling out the ability for Android users to make audio and video calls directly from the app, but only for premium users. The update allows users to choose who can call them from their address book, those they follow, and verified users. X also introduced a new basic paid tier for verified organizations, offering ad credits and priority support for $200 per month or $2,000 per year.
Elon Musk announced that the X app (formerly Twitter) would remove its user-blocking feature, which could potentially lead to the app being banned from Apple and Google's app stores. However, Musk believes that a stronger form of mute would be more effective in reducing harassment and abuse on the platform. The proposed enhanced mute function would prevent muted users from replying or quoting posts and could be seen as functionally equivalent to user-blocking. Critics argue that removing the block feature would eliminate a vital safety mechanism, while others point out the irony of Musk advocating for its removal when he himself has blocked many users.