this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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X adds video calling — and lets strangers ring you: Turned on by default, tool lets anyone you follow potentially call you up::Turned on by default, tool lets anyone you follow potentially call you up

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[–] [email protected] 173 points 1 year ago (3 children)

An "Everything App" is just an operating system.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago (7 children)

You nailed it, he wants to create OS X.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago

Sold on his very own special X boxes.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

An explanation I've heard for why we don't have "everything apps" in the US is because we all have an app store on our phones and that's the niche the everything apps were really solving for.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That and i think we also adopted technology differently. Places like China or india in a way skipped most of the PC/Laptop phase and went straight to smartphones as their main device to access everything. On a PC/Laptop you'll access most things through a browser, so many services already existed this way and also remain accessible through that.

And even to this day many will prefer to do some things on a larger screen rather than a smartphone, even if by now it is the primary device.

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[–] hogunner 119 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I’m going to go ahead and assume the one person on X that you can’t call is old Muck himself. Wonder why?

Then again, X is such a shit show and Elon is so incapable of thinking two steps ahead of his feet that maybe you can call him lol

[–] xkforce 36 points 1 year ago

Only one way to find out

[–] Telodzrum 27 points 1 year ago

He might not consider it a necessary feature. I mean, not even his own kids want to talk to him.

[–] meco03211 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My bet is he'd be too fucking arrogant and think people would genuinely call him out of admiration and he could create some viral moment showcasing how awesome he is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

My bet is this isn’t really about people calling each other, but more about exTwitter having access to users’ microphones and cameras and is turned on by default.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

The system means that all accounts are liable to receive calls from accounts you follow, or those run by people whose number you have in your address book. To be able to call someone, they must have sent at least one direct message to your account.

He's probably left it on.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

To be fair anyone can already call me with my phone number. Although it's pretty anoying too.

[–] pete_the_cat 12 points 1 year ago

I remember years ago a high school friend of mine freaked out because her phone number and current address showed up in one of those free people search sites. I asked her "Are you listed in the phone book?" and she said "oh... yeah... I am".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

This is a bit different. This is the equivalent of letting me call you right now because I know your username. I literally don't need to know anything else about you, except for your activity on the site. That said I'm somewhat impressed. Impressed by how anyone would come up with something this stupid.

[–] jaybone 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why would anyone want this functionality?

I’m guessing this is so if Elon gets a negative reply to one of his tweets he can call that person up and threaten them or something?

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[–] fubo 94 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I can already make video calls from Signal, which isn't run by neofarcists.

(That was a typo, but it's fitting.)

[–] Gazumi 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Stragglers of a dying platform get new bait and switch service. Expect fees once enought people use it.

[–] qarbone 10 points 1 year ago

It already requires the monthly subscription to use.

[–] VinnieFarsheds 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This would be a good reason to delete my X account

[–] KidsTryThisAtHome 51 points 1 year ago

This would be like the 18th good reason.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon 13 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (4 children)

With, like, 20 employees, how can they support this?

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago

Bold of you to assume there's any support.

[–] xkforce 37 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Probably built it off Jitsi

[–] bluemellophone 4 points 1 year ago

I mean, Jeff said he got it covered… yeah, Jeff’s got this one.

[–] hangryshark 42 points 1 year ago

BRB, double-checking that shitty app is not on my phone...

[–] VantaBrandon 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm sure no predators will be calling people fully nude, no way thats going to happen

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Everyone's their best on the Internet.

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[–] jacktherippah 25 points 1 year ago

Join Mastodon y'all!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The system means that all accounts are liable to receive calls from accounts you follow, or those run by people whose number you have in your address book. To be able to call someone, they must have sent at least one direct message to your account.

You're not going to get phone calls from just any rando.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You’re right. Cause I deleted that app months ago.

“They must have sent one DM” - so any rando that has sent an unwelcome DM can follow it with a call?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

To be able to call someone, they must have sent at least one direct message to your account.

Emphasis mine.

To me, it seems like it means that for me to be able to call you, you need to send me at least one DM AND be following me. So, in essence, any rando that you folllow and have previously sent a DM to can call you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That's my interpretation. If you follow someone, and have sent them a message previously, it's a reasonable assumption you want to talk to them.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

He is really after making it an "everything app" which nobody uses. Anyone here really has twitter or Facebook installed on their phone ?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The average lemmy user maybe not, but year hundreds of millions of people still use twitter, and billions use Facebook.

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[–] fat_stig 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Deleted the app from my phone the day Elmo took control. Still use it via Firefox with Tampermonkey and Control Panel for Twitter, I only see stuff from those I follow, and anyone with a paid subscription is blocked. Tolerable like this.

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[–] sanqueue 15 points 1 year ago

Why do people still use X these days? Stop using and EM will eventually be forced to close the company down

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Headline: “let’s anyone you follow potentially call you up”

Article: “To be able to call someone, they must have sent at least one direct message to your account.”

This makes total sense. Your DM conversation has too much back and forth so you say “let’s take it to an audio or video call”, and then hash it out in person.

There’s a reason Slack has this exact same feature…

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I think the problem here is there's no prior consent. If you've DM'd someone in the past, they can now call you. Twitter never had video call before, and the people who use it never expected to be giving consent for a video call maybe even several years later.

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[–] RedditWanderer 6 points 1 year ago

Anyone still on twitter who is actually affected by this deserves every bit of it. What else did they think Musky was going to do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Twitter has added video calling – and left it turned on by default.

The feature is now being officially rolled out, Elon Musk confirmed.

Video calls are part of Elon Musk’s plans to make Twitter, which he has renamed X, into the “everything app”, offering a wide array of different functionality.

For now, video calls are limited to the iOS app, and appear to be rolling out slowly.

From the direct message settings, users can either disable it entirely or change it so that they can receive calls from people in your address book, from people you follow, or from all “verified” users.

If the feature is enabled, then a phone icon should show within the direct message conversation, and tapping audio or video will start the relevant kind of call.


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