Benji Taylor, head of design at X, stated that the platform has begun rolling out X Numbers, allowing anyone to contact others on X using this number without needing to follow each other or send friend requests. Those who do not need it can deactivate it with one click and can immediately refresh to obtain a new number.

The number serves as a dedicated contact code of about ten digits within X Chat, enabling holders to send private messages and make audio or video calls without revealing their real phone numbers. Non-following visitors must enter the other party's number when initiating a private message from their profile page. Large accounts and professional accounts are said to benefit the most, as they can send the code to designated recipients and then invalidate it.

X Chat originally allowed sending private messages to fans and could set the receiving range to everyone. X Numbers introduces a third tier between "followers only" and "everyone": it is only open to those who know the number. The feature began appearing in batches on iOS and other clients in early September and is now being more widely promoted.

Taylor also oversees design for X and SpaceXAI, having joined in March of this year after working on products related to Coinbase Base and Aave. At the same time, X is also promoting X Money and other in-platform payments. Refreshing the number invalidates the old one, used to cut off previously leaked contact channels.

This is part of product entry expansion. Buyers are large accounts seeking interviews and business but do not want to open full private messaging, while sellers still rely on the old private messaging model filtered by follow relationships. Traffic is shifting from external emails and WhatsApp usernames back to in-platform conversations and calls; beneficiaries are professional accounts treating the contact code as a temporary badge, while those under pressure are users relying on follow walls to block spam messages but have not timely deactivated or refreshed their numbers. Calling capabilities are activated along with the code, with a greater potential for abuse compared to pure text messaging.

Source: Public Information