- Elon Musk has followed through on his plans to replace Twitter's bird logo with an "X."
- Musk said that the company will soon "bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds."
Elon Musk has changed Twitter's name to "X" and is getting rid of the famous blue bird logo, following through on his announcement on July 22.
Musk has made lots of changes to Twitter since concluding the acquisition of the platform in October 2022 for approximately $44 billion.
So far, he has changed the order in which users see tweets on their timeline, started requiring payment for access to Twitter's API, reinstated several controversial accounts that had previously been banned for violating Twitter's rules, and rolled out Twitter Blue — a premium subscription service that means anyone can pay to be verified.
Changing Twitter's logo is the biggest branding change Musk has made to the platform so far, saying the Twitter brand "and, gradually, all the birds" would be phased out.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
On July 23, Twitter's CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote on the platform: "X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we're just beginning to imagine."
Many users have mocked Yaccarino's announcement and questioned the reason behind the change.
—Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 23, 2023
—Damin Toell (@damintoell) July 23, 2023
Others suggested the "X" was a bad idea.
"Imagine explaining to your wife that you watched some Xvideos today," one user wrote.
—Pledditor (@Pledditor) July 23, 2023
Another user posted an image of the new logo with the caption, "Pretty sure I've seen this over the doors of sex shops in Soho."
—Don McVey (@donmcvey) July 24, 2023
The new Twitter logo was suggested by a user Sawyer Merritt on July 23 in response to Musk's request for logo submissions from users. Merritt wrote in a tweet that the logo had been created by Twitter user @ajtourville for a podcast that has since been discontinued.
Tom Warren, a senior editor at tech site The Verge, compared Twitter's new logo to the Xbox Series X logo. "Who did it better?" he asked followers in a tweet.
—Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 24, 2023
"An overnight rebranding SURELY won't end up running head first into legal issues, right?" one user replied in a quote tweet.
An artist who goes by the Twitter username @badiucao created a cartoon of Twitter's new logo, which shows a dead bird pinned to a wooden "X."
—巴丢草 Bad ї ucao (@badiucao) July 24, 2023
Even brands are making jokes about Twitter's new logo. British bakery chain Greggs tweeted an image of an "X" with one of its iconic sausage rolls pasted over one side of the letter. It captioned the tweet, "#TwitterX walked so GreX could run."
—Greggs (@GreggsOfficial) July 24, 2023
One user shared an image of a Twix candy bar with the caption, "I'm calling it TwiX from now on, and no-one can stop me. #TwitterX"
—BitMissing (@bit_missing) July 24, 2023
One user responded with a suggestion for the platform's new terminology. "Twix'd and ReTwix'd - all naming problems solved. Thankyou!" they wrote.
Another user tweeted a pop culture meme to compare the logos. They overlayed the image from the "Barbie" movie with the old Twitter logo, and the image from the "Oppenheimer" movie with the new logo. Then, they asked users which side they were choosing, in reference to the two movies being released the same day.
—KJ (@s1eezisdead) July 24, 2023
They went on to post a poll which has received over 1,200 votes.;78.6% of respondents voted for Twitter, and 21.4% of respondents voted for "X."
Meanwhile, Twitter user @IamHappyToast tweeted a screenshot of the twitter.com website which still had a number of blue bird logos visible. "Desktop is just hilarious. School kids have a better understanding of brand roll out," they wrote.
—HappyToast★ (@IamHappyToast) July 24, 2023
It's not just Twitter users who are questioning the change. TikTok user Jules Terpak, who goes by the username @julesterpak, said in a video that changing Twitter so drastically could have a significant impact on the culture of the rest of the internet.
"I don't have time to digest this. He just announced it yesterday," she said. "Rest in peace to tweet, retweet, quote tweet. We're going generic. Post, repost, quote post."
@julesterpak Elon says Twitter is changing to X today. He’s shared thoughts about this idea for awhile, but the official rebranding is real sudden
♬ original sound - Jules
Sterpak said that the concept of "tweeting" is not only "vital" to the culture of Twitter, but to the culture of the rest of the internet. "Twitter is like my partner. I'm a widow now," she said.
On July 23, the day before the Twitter logo was updated, Musk also announced that "X.com now points to twitter.com."
He also suggested that the new logo is just an "interim" logo, suggesting that the current logo may be replaced with an updated version in the future.