Introducing the Artist Formerly Known as Twitter (Picture: Getty)
Far be it for us to ever question the workings of a successful billionaire (and the richest person in the world), but where Elon Musk is concerned, there might be the need to paraphrase a well-known saying: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t X it?’
After purchasing Twitter for a cool $44 billion in April 2022, the Tesla guru has gone about making many changes to the popular social media app.
From introducing a paid feature – Twitter Blue – to temporarily confusing the world with a ‘rate limit exceeded’ function, not everything has gone smoothly.
And now, in a bold move, the famous Twitter logo – a little blue bird – has been replaced by a rather ominous looking X.
Why – why the change and why an X? Here’s what it all means…
Why is the Twitter logo now an X?
Firstly, a bit of a clarification. It’s not that Twitter’s logo has changed to an X, Twitter itself is now simply… X.
That’s right. Twitter is dead. This (blue) bird has flown.
Tweeting (or Xing… if Elon has his way) the big change, Elon posted on his personal profile: ‘Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app.’
‘The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video. In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world.’
Okay – new name, new logo. Hence the X which has now replaced the little bird icon in many people’s app stores (don’t worry if yours hasn’t yet, there seems to be a staggered rollout as many X users still report seeing the blue bird).
Elon has wasted no time making sure everyone knows of the rebrand, though, as big, flashing X now sits atop (what was formerly) Twitter HQ in San Francisco.
The flashing X has not gone down well with residents nearby, as some X users have shared what it’s like living with the new sign…
What does the X mean to Elon Musk?
We may as well call him Wolverine, because Musk is most definitely one of the X Men.
He just likes the letter, okay (Picture: Getty)
His obsession with the letter predates the Twitter change.
He named his very first startup X.com – something we now call PayPal. Then there are his other ventures including the Tesla Model X, SpaceX, artificial-intelligence app xAI and even his son.
‘It’s just X, the letter X,’ he explained recently on the Joe Rogan Experience, sharing how to pronounce his and Grimes’ son’s name X Æ A-XII’s.
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Has X missed the spot this time? Here’s why Twitter is changing
