Musk says video and audio calls coming to Twitter

NEW YORK - Twitter boss Elon Musk on Tuesday put out the word that audio and video calls are coming to the platform.

"Coming soon will be voice and video chat from your handle to anyone on this platform," Musk said in a tweet.

"So you can talk to people anywhere in the world without giving them your phone number."

In a subsequent comment fired off on Twitter, Musk contended that the WhatsApp messaging service operated by Meta "cannot be trusted."

A messaging feature at Twitter would compete with an array of free services including Messenger, Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp.

Musk added that Twitter on Wednesday will start encrypting direct messages on the platform, scrambling contents to safeguard privacy.

Since buying Twitter for $44 billion late last year, Musk has implemented changes in seemingly impulsive ways, sometimes causing chaos for users.

The Twitter boss has talked publicly of building an all-purpose "X" application that combines messages, payments and more.

Musk recently made the tech firm part of an "X" shell corporation, getting rid of the Twitter company name but continuing to use it for the service.