X Marks The Spot: Elon Musk starts Twitter's makeover into a ‘super app’ with many new upcoming features

Ever since news broke that Elon Musk would be taking over Twitter, industry experts, especially those who have been following Elon Musk and his various business ventures were saying that Musk will one day turn Twitter into a super app. Basically, Twitter will be made into an app that does pretty much everything, from being social media platform, to a messaging app, to a payments and banking app and, even to let users order food, book a cab, or just shop online. With Twitter now being rebranded as X, and Musk stating that he will be ‘killing all birds’ The transition everyone knew was on the way, is now finally happening.

pic.twitter.com/IwcbqMnQtA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023

Elon Musk made an announcement on Sunday stating that “X dot com” now directs to Twitter dot com. He also tweeted that the interim X logo would be live later in the day. Mr. Musk has been vocal about his aspiration to create an all-in-one app that combines the functionalities of social media and payment apps, similar to China’s WeChat, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant Tencent. WeChat, a crucial part of Chinese society, boasts more than 1 billion users who rely on it for a wide array of tasks, including social media, messaging, food ordering, and cab payments. Its significance is such that it is often referred to as “the app for everything.” In the past, Mr. Musk openly expressed that his acquisition of Twitter, which stirred controversy, served as a catalyst for his vision of creating “X,” an all-encompassing app he envisions as the “everything app.” Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino, shed some light on what new features will come with X, the everything app, saying that X’s unlimited interactivity is powered by AI, and “it will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”

X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 23, 2023

There’s absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can deliver, well….everything. @elonmusk and I are looking forward to working with our teams and every single one of our partners to bring X to the world.

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 23, 2023

From Linda’s Tweets above and the rumours of the features that some of Twitter’s top engineers have been working on, here are just some of the features that Elon Musk’s X super app will have Centred around audio and video content While Twitter is very text heavy, it will transition into audio, video and photographic content more as they are easier to interact with. Having said that, Twitter will still continue to support text but will urge creators to supplement those textual content with video or images. Integration with food ordering apps, cab booking apps Because of Musk’s fascination with WeChat, we can assume that some of the most popular features of the Chinese super app will be added to Musk’s X, the everything app. Some of the most common features would be social messaging, ordering food, and booking train/flight tickets or cabs. E-commerce platform or an online marketplace Almost every social media app has dabbled with the idea of having its own e-commerce platform, or at the very least, a marketplace. And although the way the idea may have been implemented differently by different social media platforms, Twitter’s online shopping platform is pretty rudimentary. That is all set to change because of X. It will be interesting to see if Musk’s X platform becomes a threat to Jeff Bezos’ Amazon in any way A UPI-like payment and banking system Payments and banking will be a cornerstone for X. Musk has indicated several times that Twitter, now X, needs its own payment system and that he hopes to start an online bank within the Twitter ecosystem. Given how many of X’s proposed features are based on buying and selling stuff services, it only makes sense to have a banking system within the app itself. A dating platform Twitter has already announced that it will now allow verified companies to post vacancies they have at their companies, muck like LinkedIn. There is a very possibility that Musk and Linda may decide to add a dating feature to the app. As anyone who has spent any time on the Internet would know, almost all social sites can be made into a dating site. Moreover, Musk has at times encouraged people on Twitter to find their partners using the social media platform.