Elon Musk has announced that he is changing the name of Twitter effective immediately – changing the site’s name to “X” and the platform’s iconic blue bird logo to the letter as well.
The change, announced in a series of tweets from Tesla And SpaceX leader, serves up the latest in a string of shakeups on the social media platform since Musk, 52, bought it late last year.
The CEO first alluded to some major changes to the site – which has battled reduced user numbers and increased competition in recent months – early Sunday morning, revealing that the bird logo would soon be replaced by a plain ‘X’.
He hinted that the symbol came as part of a larger rebranding of the entire platform and could be implemented as early as tomorrow while he searches for the right design.
Hours later, as onlookers continued to debate the news and its legitimacy online, the sometimes satirical CEO made it clear that he meant business. He revealed that a URL redirect already exists, which will now take users typing X.com directly to the website.
Elon Musk has announced that he’s changing the name of Twitter effective immediately – changing the site’s name to “X” and the platform’s iconic blue bird logo to the letter as well
“X.com now points to https://twitter.com/,” Musk wrote around 1:45 p.m. in a tweet that has already been viewed more than 7 million times.
Of the newly announced logo, which is still in limbo, he claimed, “Interim X logo going live later today.”
Many thousands of users weighed in on Musk’s answers, dropping design suggestions for the new logo, as well as questions about his reasoning for the new name.
Several sarcastic jokes about what would come of the already widely accepted term “tweeting” in the wake of the revamp.
‘I’m not sure what it will be called now! After? X post? Xost?’ someone wrote.
Another similarly asked, “If Twitter turns into X, what would we call future ‘tweets’?”
Someone else snapped, “So it’s not a tweet anymore, it’s what?”
Others seemed to mock the famously flippant exec following his announcement, with some seeing the increased pressure he’s facing from the recent arrival of Meta-owned Threads and the declining market valuation of his new company.
‘you[sic] actually so annoying. really what’s the reason,” said one person shortly after the announcement – which ended a string of sentient tweets from Musk alluding to a massive rebranding.
“Now continue with discussions,” someone else added.
Musk seemed, in typical fashion, to play along with a storm of sarcastic messages, asking his some 149 million followers in moments, “What should we call tweeting?”
Several, in turn, responded with their own homemade verbs to describe posting on the now-evolving social media site.
“Xweeting,” wrote one; “Xpressing,” wrote another.
Hours earlier, Musk alluded to some smaller but still significant changes to the platform, with several photos featuring a stylized form of the letter x — including a shot of himself crossing his arms.
Hours earlier, Musk alluded to some smaller but still groundbreaking changes to the platform, with several photos showing a stylized shape of the letter x
“And soon we will say goodbye to the Twitter brand and, gradually, to all birds,” Musk read a Monday post.
Another that aired shortly after added, “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll go live worldwide tomorrow.”
He followed up the announcement by offering potential designers some creative guidance: “If the X is the closest thing to anything in terms of style, then of course it would have to be Art Deco.”
He then posted a blacked out version of the current Twitter logo and wrote, “I like it but X.”
Finally, Musk posted a flickering video of an X overtaking the bird and pinned it to the top of his profile.
The image was suggested by Sawyer Merritt, the co-founder of a sustainable clothing brand, and designed by Alex Tourville, a physical engineer.
It’s not clear if the pinned X is the one Musk will use for the company logo going forward.
The site’s current logo, known as Larry the Bird, has been Twitter’s emblem since its inception in 2006, and the current design has been used since 2012.
According to Twitter’s website, Larry is “our most recognizable asset” and “why we’re so protective about it.”
In April, the site’s logo was briefly replaced with a picture of a Shibu Inu dog, boosting the market value of Dogecoin, the popular meme coin, by $4 billion.
That same month, an email was sent to Twitter’s business partners informing them that the company had been renamed X Corp following a merger, but that the abbreviated social media platform would retain its original name for now.
X Corp may also act as a future parent company for Musk’s other companies: Neuralink, SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company.
When the company documents became public in April, Musk tweeted a simple “X” to his millions of followers. It’s unclear if and when Musk will change Twitter’s name.
Musk seemed to allude to the court documents with a tweet that simply read, “X”
According to Twitter’s website, Larry is “our most recognizable asset” and “why we’re so protective about it”
Musk showed his users an example of the aesthetic he has in mind for the new logo
The logo announcement comes nearly two weeks after the launch of Musk’s new artificial intelligence startup, xAI – which is now the sole resident of Musk’s Twitter bio.
The startup, led by Musk, aims to provide an alternative to ChatGPT.
According to Musk, who has repeatedly warned of the unregulated development of AI, the company will create a “maximally curious” AI.
“If it’s trying to understand the true nature of the universe, that’s actually the best I can come up with from an AI safety standpoint,” he said. “I think it will be pro-humanity from the point of view that humanity is just much more interesting than non-humanity.”
The logo change would be the latest in a number of changes that have shaken the company since the Musk acquisition.
He has previously been criticized for stripping the company of the vast majority of its employees and monetizing its “verified” blue check status in April.
Earlier this month, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta launched their own short-form posting app, called Threads.
Mark Zuckerberg said more than 30 million people signed up for the rival service in the first 24 hours.
Twitter has threatened to sue the company over allegedly stolen trade secrets.