Yes, Elon Musk’s alternate to Gmail sounds exactly like what you think

There’s a reason the phrase “X, formerly known as Twitter” is still used ad nauseam in news coverage, and people deadname the no-longer-only-microblogging app even after Elon Musk has changed everything about it. X just sounds… NSFW-y. So imagine how everyone must’ve reacted to Musk’s idea for Xmail, an alternate to Gmail that he plans to launch… Yeaaaah, you get it, don’t you?

Earlier this week, an app researcher and web developer using X suggested that they could be convinced to switch from Google’s widely used email client Gmail if there was an X-integrated email address. In his reply, Elon Musk seemed onboard with the idea of overhauling the current popular email and messaging systems and creating a new one that did things differently. When another user seconded the idea for X mail, Musk cryptically replied that launching it was on his to-do list. 

Since then, the Internet has been abuzz in anticipation of Musk’s Xmail that he plans to supplant Gmail with, which dominates the category with more than 1.5 billion users as of 2024. Some of these users are suspiciously enthusiastic about the idea, making you wonder if that entire “X-change” was a gimmick to generate hype.

But there has also been some hilarious backlash to the idea of Xmail. And no, it is not because people think Gmail is impeccably awesome or that they are averse to change. No, it’s because much like X, Xmail sounds a lot like what you think it sounds like. Yep, THAT. As if a porn site sent you promotional mail that went straight to your spam. 

Blame this association on the letter X being infamously associated with porn sites and the X rating used to refer to sexually explicit content. But there are many who are vehemently opposed to the idea of receiving mails from someone with an ‘X dot com’ in their email address. From sending their mails to spam, judging them as utterly unserious people, to blocking their emails entirely, people are suggesting the lengths they’d go to avoid Xmail. Not X-aggerating, but they are hilarious!

Jokes aside, though, it’s understandable why you’d be wary of an Xmail id because of all the new ways it opens you up to phishing scams. For starters, even before it is officially launched, scammers could take advantage of the hype and send fake invites to people with links that could trigger phishing attacks. Once launched, Xmail emails could easily end up in spam folders for people using other email clients due to its name. I mean, this has been happening for even some safe promotional emails for respectable brands where Gmail just sends them to the Spam folder because the links ‘look suspicious’. So imagine what an email from an X.com account would be susceptible to!

Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see Elon Musk is able to lure people that are habituated to Gmail to Xmail, and the chaos that might ensue after. Would you switch to Xmail?