X is slowly rolling out audio and video calling to users who don't pay for its premium subscription service, formerly known as Twitter Blue. Enrique Barragan, engineer of the company, shared the news on the platform. The company initially launched the feature for iOS users last year, giving paid subscribers the ability to call other people through the app, which was a step toward making X the “everything” app Elon Musk wants it to be. Earlier this year, this capability made its way to Android devicesbut the possibility of making calls remained limited to Premium subscribers only.
In late January, Musk said that X would make audio-video calling available to everyone as soon as the company was convinced of its robustness. We're still asked to subscribe to X Premium to be able to make calls when we tap the phone icon in DMs, but those who receive the update will be able to make calls even if they're not paid subscribers. The official X Support Page as the feature now states that all accounts can make and receive calls, although both parties must have been in contact via direct messaging at least once. In the past, it was stated that only “Premium subscribers have the ability to make audio and video calls.”
In addition to announcing the rollout of this feature, Barragan revealed that users will now also be able to receive calls from everyone on the app if they choose. Audio and video calls were automatically enabled for us when we checked the Settings menu in our DMs, set so we could (thankfully) only receive calls from people we follow. There we already see the “Everyone” option, ready to be chosen by the most intrepid X users.