Use of ‘x’ in messages

[Partylikeits2019]

Interested in views really of what you think as inprired by another thread.

Is it normal to ‘x’ at the end of messages to a male friend?

Would you find it odd if you never did with one friend but then it started happening?

Does it matter how many?

I struggle with ‘x’ etiquette as don’t tend to use it myself

I always sign off with a x.
If I know someone well and it's friends or family then it's always xxx

I use an x for everyone I know male or female. Unless it is a professional text (I have a work phone as well) - no kisses for my director!
xx for family of any gender
xxx for DH only.

This is only my silly little "rule" though.

I do with male friends but not with co workers, friend's partners - for them I use I smiley face.

I use an x at the end of most messages but I think if I were wanting to send a clear message to someone of the opposite sex that I wasn't interested in that way I would leave it off.
If someone else (of the opposite sex) didn't usually use an x but then started I might find it unusual I guess, unless they were mirroring what I did.

I also wouldn't use an x to my boss (same sex but this would also apply if not the case), in a professional sense, or to someone I didn't really know very well.

Friend: x or xx

DH: xxx

Work: none!!

I do x or xx to male friends too. I doubt I’d notice if a friend move from nothing to x or xx

Most of the men I know use x Or xx it’s basically a full stop these days. But I think it’s generational. We were the first generation of normal kids to have phones as teens. So we all had a mobile at 16 at the latest so texting is vv normal. Dh is a bit older and was an adult before he got a phone so finds all the x or xx or emojis more

I wouldn't use an 'x' to a straight male friend, no. It sounds militant but it's just too important to me not to let any confusion develop.

The only person I “x” is my mum. Otherwise, virtually never, except on the very odd occasion where I’m trying to “soften” a text which I think could be read ambiguously by the recipient, and am using it a bit like an emoji I suppose. Maybe also very very occasionally when I’ve been drunk and telling a friend I love them!

It doesn’t mean anything that I don’t “x”, it’s just not a habit I ever got into. I suspect some people read something into it / think I’m being curt or unfriendly. But equally, I think if you “x” virtually everybody you text then it equally has no actual meaning, it’s just a reflex.

I wouldn’t say it’s weird to use it for a friend of the opposite sex, presuming you do so consistently to all friends and acquaintances anyway.

I very rarely use an x. An exception would be a "get well soon" or "sorry you're [struggling with whatever], I am here for you".

My sister sent me a screenshot of a convo with her husband and I was agog at the "xxx" on the end of every message. I mean literally every message, even the "Can you get milk on your way home". You already both know you love each other, what's the point?

It’s so interesting as there is so much variation!

In this case it’s not that it happens more that’s it’s a recent change.

I’m not British though and do think Brits use it more

I only use it if I mean it. Never did it when texting my XDH and he never did either. I find it very much OTT and along the same lines of cringe as saying 'Love you' at the end of every conversation or using 'Hun'.

I'm not a Brit either.

I use x or xxx sometimes, depends what the other person uses and my mood/tone of the message. I have received plenty of messages signed off x from male friends and male work colleagues. I think it's meaningless and I'm not consistent with it either.

I don’t use X’s at all. Seems a bit weird to be sending kisses to people, I wouldn’t kiss them in rl after all.

I never send x. Apart from a few that literally translate as "kiss" to DP it I can't reply to a message or something but need to respond (e.g. if he said he was having a bad day I might send "x" as a reply).

I don't think anything of someone sensing me an x. But I don't send them. Just habit I suppose.

X to acquaintance
Xx to friends and family
Xxxxx to dh

It depends. I have a mix of male and female friends. Some use X and some don't, if they don't use them, I don't use them either. But, I use XX to my DS/DD, some family and close friends.

I randomly use them, I don't think about it, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. The only time I've ever done it and regretted it was to the dad of one of my daughter's friends, I wasn't thinking and stuck a kiss at the end, and once to my boss. oh and once to my ex husband, he got 3!!! I cringed at that one!

I (bloke) use xxx to my DP, xx to family.

I don’t use x to friends of either sex as it would be a bit weird to male friends and I worry about it being miscounstrued by female friends.

I’m also someone that adds xxx to a request for a pint of milk to DP :-) I know she knows I love her, but it’s just what I do.

My boyfriend and I are nauseating in that we still use emojis at 5 months in usually ♥️😘🤗and lots of them. But I'm madly in love and don't care what people think. X to friends and son xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to daughter . 😂. I'm 55 too. It's terrible but fun.

I do sign off x to most friends, all the female ones and some male ones. Very old male friends or some closer male friends with an x or xx.

I almost never do it, even with DP, and find it weird that people do.

I have to try to remember to do it with DM, DSis, SIL, MIL and a few others because they seem to think that if I forget, I might as well have written 'I hate you and hope you die' .

I don't sign off with anything, it seems odd to put an x or even my name after a text. They know who they're talking to already. The whole "x" signing isn't a thing in the US though, which I'm sure is why I just don't get it.

My friends and family get as many x’s as I feel like tapping. Sometimes it looks like:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Only my closest colleagues get xx. Others get none.
My DH gets the aubergine and squirting water emoji ....sorry.