iWorld
Disney+ Hotstar offers free mobile viewing for ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024
Mumbai: Disney+ Hotstar announced today that the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be available to stream ‘Free on Mobile’ for those using the Disney+ Hotstar app. This move underscores the streaming platform’s continued commitment towards making sports more accessible to diverse audiences. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is the growth vehicle for the sport, of fast-paced, high-energy cricket, evoking profound pride within the global sports community.
Commenting on this, Disney+ Hotstar India head Sajith Sivanandan said, “By offering the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 for free on mobile, we aim to make the game of cricket more accessible, reach a wider audience across the country and ensure that none of the sporting action is missed. No sport works as a better catalyst than cricket in bringing people together. Last year’s Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, where we offered both tournaments for free on mobile, allowed us to serve newer audience segments helping us to significantly expand viewership.”
During the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, streamed free on mobile via the Disney+ Hotstar app, concurrency records were broken five times, with the highest record of 5.9 cr peak concurrency witnessed during the finals between Team India and Team Australia. For the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, Disney+ Hotstar in collaboration with the ICC, introduced MaxView, offering users the option to stream matches on the go in vertical mode. With the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the platform will once again have an array of features to elevate the cricket-watching experience.
The first match will take place between the USA and Canada on June 2, 2024, at 6:00 AM IST. The ninth edition of the tournament will be hosted by the West Indies and the USA, with the event featuring 20 teams competing across 55 games for the right to be crowned ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 champions.
Watch the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 live and free on mobile starting June 2 on Disney+ Hotstar. The tournament will also be broadcast live on Star Sports Network
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.
