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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[–] bogdugg@sh.itjust.works 156 points 11 months ago (3 children)

An "Everything App" is just an operating system.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 75 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You nailed it, he wants to create OS X.

[–] Patch@feddit.uk 36 points 11 months ago

Sold on his very own special X boxes.

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[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 51 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 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.

[–] golli@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months 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.

[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How do you get the everything app in the first place if you don't have an app store?

[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Comes pre-installed on the phone. I think it was possible to download apps from websites too, it was just not as convenient.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So is there like a single app on their Home Screen?

They tap it and it opens an app with a bunch of other apps in it? Or a bunch of tabs, or other widgets you have to scroll around to find the functionality you want?

I get why China would want this, for content control. But I don’t see why india or anywhere else would want this.

[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There are still like calculator apps and web browsers and such, "everything" is more like instead of Paypal/Venmo, you use WeChat. Instead of ApplePay, WeChat. Instead of Facebook, WeChat. Instead of Uber, WeChat. It's just all that functionality smashed into one app.

I don't think it's designed by the state to be centralized, it's just how things happened in a lot of Asia.

[–] cyd@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Also, everyone is locked into using credit cards.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 7 points 11 months ago

The idea of an everything app (AKA Superapp) is that all of it's features are interoperable. The OS doesn't do anything except provide an environment for apps to run.

[–] hogunner@lemmy.world 109 points 11 months 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@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago

Only one way to find out

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

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

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 16 points 11 months 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.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months 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.

[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 6 points 11 months 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.

[–] Bogasse@lemmy.ml 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months 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".

[–] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months 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@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months 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?

[–] BluesF@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago

Omg this might actually be a good reason to get back on twitter

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 84 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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

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

[–] Gazumi@lemmy.world 55 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

It already requires the monthly subscription to use.

[–] VinnieFarsheds@lemmy.world 42 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This would be a good reason to delete my X account

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago
[–] hangryshark@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago

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

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 39 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] db2@sopuli.xyz 51 points 11 months ago

Bold of you to assume there's any support.

[–] bluemellophone@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

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

[–] VantaBrandon@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] rish@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 months ago

Everyone's their best on the Internet.

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[–] jacktherippah@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

Join Mastodon y'all!

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 20 points 11 months 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.

[–] captainastronaut@seattlelunarsociety.org 20 points 11 months 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?

[–] malijaffri@feddit.ch 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months 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.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months 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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[–] yoz@aussie.zone 16 points 10 months 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 ?

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months 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@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months 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.

[–] worsedoughnut@lemdro.id 3 points 10 months ago

The PWA is decently tolerable, but at least on Android 14 the Firefox one has some annoying visual issues pretty frequently. That said, anything is better than installing the actual app and giving that POS even the smallest amount of access to my phone's info.

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[–] sanqueue@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

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

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 11 points 11 months ago

My guy, Facebook has had this feature for 10 years.

[–] JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago

People still using it?

[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 8 points 10 months 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…

[–] jcg@halubilo.social 12 points 10 months ago (1 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@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months 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.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 4 points 11 months 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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