# TikTok Privacy Stance, Google AI Expansion, X Money Launch

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-03-05

## Transcript

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X taps the one and only William Shatner for its new payment service.
I'm Imran Sheikh, and your Thursday Daily Crunch, featuring three big tech headlines starts right now.
TikTok is not going to introduce end-to-end encryption for direct messages, or DMs for Eugen Zers out there, on its platform, according to a new report from The Beebs, or BBC, as you normies may know it as.
The social media giant says end-to-end encryption would make users less safe, as it believes the technology would prevent police and safety teams from accessing messages when necessary.
Well, TikTok told the outlet that this is a deliberate decision to distinguish itself from rivals and protect users, particularly younger ones, from harm.
Now, with end-to-end encryption, only the sender and recipient of a direct message can view its contents.
The company said direct messages are still protected with standard encryption, so back off.
Similar to services like, oh, I don't know, Gmail.
Have you heard of that?
Also, only authorized employees can access direct messages, and only under specific circumstances, such as in response to a valid law enforcement request or a user report of harmful behavior.
End-to-end encryption is the default technology used in popular apps like Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger for one-to-one personal chats and calls, Apple's messages, and Google messages.
Google has expanded access to Canvas in AI mode to all users in the good old US of A in English after first launching the feature as part of its Google Labs experiments all the way back in the Halcyon days of last year.
Canvas in AI mode is designed to help users organize and plan projects or delve into deeper research.
The feature now supports the ability to draft documents or create custom tools within Google Search, the company said in a blog post.
Google previously suggested using Canvas for tasks like building a study guide by uploading class notes and other sources.
The feature can also complete other tasks, such as turning a research report into a web page, quiz, or audio overview, which has some overlap with Google's research tool Notebook LM.
But then when has Google ever shied away from overlapping features on apps?
Users can describe an idea to Canvas and watch as it generates the code to transform that idea into a shareable app or game.
The feature can also be used to help refine creative writing drafts and get feedback on projects.
Canvas is already available in Gemini, where Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers have access to the latest model, Gemini 3, and a larger 1 million token context window for more complex projects.
Of course, more people will be exposed to Canvas now that it's available to all users in the U.S.
through Google's AI search feature known as AI mode, including those who haven't yet dabbled with Gemini's capabilities.
You see, that's one of Google's advantages in the AI race.
The reach of Google search gives it the power to place its products in front of just straight up billions of users.
XChat's standalone app isn't the only new service X is testing this week.
Looks like the company has also begun offering select users invites to its X money payment Service, which was previously being tested internally among ex employees.
Now these invites were not doled out in the typical way.
Instead, X Grand Poobah Elon Musk himself worked with the one and only our captain of captains, William Shatner, to invite people into the beta in exchange for a $1,000 donation to Shatner's charity that supports children's and veterans organizations.
See, this is why Captain Kirk will always be my personal hero.
On X, the Shat has been sharing information about the X Money service and its beta invites, which were made available via an online auction on Monday.
Musk reshared one of Shatner's posts to his own feed, saying simply, X Money.
Uh brevity is the soul of wit.
Musk also reposted another user's post about X Money, adding, This will be big.
Uh brevity continues to be the soul of wit.
The auction, Captain Kirk noted himself, was conducted with Musk's blessing after the Shat received payment from Musk via the X Money app.
A screenshot showed that Musk sent him forty-two dollars, a playful sci-fi reference.
You see the numbers in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the, well, answer for everything.
X also offered 42 invites to the X Money Beta to those who donated in the auction.
Now, the addition of X-Money to X is part of Musk's plan to make the social network more of an everything app, offering a variety of features, including private messaging, payments, creator content, subscriptions, video, and you get the idea, more stuff like that.
X Money itself isn't an FDIC insured bank, but it has been racking up money transmitter licenses across the US.
X now has licenses in over 40 US states.
And in X's public all hands meeting in February, Musk told staff that the service would enter a limited external beta in a month or two before going worldwide to all users.
We'll see you here tomorrow.
Same tech time, same crunch channel.
And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.
Hey, Berlin.
Berliner Stadtwerke.
Good for dich.
Good for Berlin.