iWorld
Actor Sonu Sood & Tech entrepreneur Jitin Bhatia launch a travel based social media app ‘Explurger’
Mumbai: Actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood & tech entrepreneur Jitin Bhatia have launched a travel-based social media app Explurger. They claim that half a million users from over 40 countries are already present on the beta version of the app. The app creates automatic travelogues by using artificial intelligence. It gamifies the social experience and rewards users for being socially active.
Explurger, which targets the travel community, claims to be the first social media app that offers rewards for its users to be active on its platform. Also, the more a user engages with the platform the higher the Explurger level goes. This results in more recognition on the platform. It creates a personalised travelogue for each user. Every time a user creates a post or an Explurge-in, the app’s artificial intelligence updates the travelogue, so every mile, city, country, pub, club,etc., get added to it. So travelling within one’s own city and exploring new areas also counts. The app has features like a bucket list and future travel plans.
Explurger co-founder actor Sonu Sood explains that exploring new places is a passion of his. “So Explurger is basically borne out of this love for visiting new places and sharing them with my friends & family. Teaming up with Jitin to develop a made in India social media app for the world is akin to a new journey for me and I am super excited to put India through Explurger on the global map.”
Explurger founder and CEO Jitin Bhatia noted that humans are travellers and social beings & Explurger will help them discover real travel itineraries written by real travellers with real route maps, photos and guides. “Explurger is an indigenous app platform that facilitates this in a unique and intuitive way, rewarding users for their posts on their travel updates, triggering wanderlust in followers and spreading positivity among the online community.”
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
