Twitter rebrands as X
Twitter is taking its first step toward becoming an “everything app.”
The social media platform, which was acquired for $44 billion by multibillionaire and Tesla owner Elon Musk in October 2022, has been officially rebranded to “X.” The longtime bird logo on the home page has been replaced by a stylized “X” logo. Tweets from the official account of Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino (who presumably will become X CEO) explained the decision.
“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression,” Yaccarino said in a tweet. “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”
“For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfill our great potential.,” Yaccarino said in a separate tweet. “X will do that and more. We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past eight months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.
In a Oct. 4, 2022 tweet posted on his verified Twitter account, Musk stated, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” In a response to a post asking why he wouldn’t just build X from scratch, Musk tweeted, “Twitter probably accelerates X by 3 to 5 years, but I could be wrong.”
While Musk has still not publicly specified what exactly an “everything app” would do, media outlets including CNN have speculated he wants to turn Twitter into a “super app” such as the Chinese WeChat app, which provides functionality including mobile payment, messaging and social media from a single platform.
Meta takes on Twitter
Twitter is officially rebranding to X and planning to expand its functionality after Instagram, the visually-oriented social network owned by Facebook parent Meta, recently launched its new “text-sharing” app called Threads. Users log in with their Instagram credentials, which automatically carry over to Threads. The app offers users features such as a feed which includes threads posted by people they follow, and recommended content from other creators.
Threads is similar to Twitter, and media reports indicate Twitter traffic has declined since the July 6 introduction of Threads, which rapidly reached 100 million users, although Threads’ growth and engagement rates have reportedly slowed since their initial surge.
Twitter, which has seen substantial declines in advertising revenue since Musk took over, also recently began limiting the number of daily direct messages unverified users can send. Members of the Twitter paid monthly subscription service, which gives them verified account status, can still send unlimited daily direct messages.