Twitter has ceased to be. It is now an X bird

Elon Musk has announced plans to rebrand Twitter under the name of the parent company he set up when he acquired the social media platform, X.

It is unclear yet if this ends the iconic name and logo of the so-called “bird app” but Musk’s recently appointed CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted the new logo over the weekend – a “minimalist art deco” X.

Already, on some platforms, the infamous bluebird has been replaced with a black X. Twitter – founded in 2006 – has used its vivid, globally recognized blue bird emblem for more than a decade.

The move has long been mooted by Musk, who wants to create an “everything app” offering multiple functions, such as messaging, video, payments and banking, as well as Twitter’s “Town Square” environment, all powered by AI.

Shortly before buying Twitter in October, Musk described the social media platform as “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”

Musk has long had plans to create the western version of Chinese giant Tencent’s WeChat, which is one of the world’s most-used standalone mobile apps. It allows users to perform multiple functions from messaging to ordering a taxi and paying bills.

Yaccarino tweeted these ambitions, saying: “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centred 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.”

It follows increased competition in the market after Meta launched Threads earlier this month. Threads, which links to users’ Instagram accounts, is similar in design to Twitter, and gained over 100 million followers in its first week after launch.

Despite initial positivity around the launch, Threads has already seen usage tailing off. For a second week in a row, the number of daily active users declined on Threads, falling to 13 million, down about 70% from a July 7 peak, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Twitter, meanwhile, has around 260 million daily users.

Musk has been under pressure since he completed his acquisition of Twitter, making several changes that have been deemed unpopular, including overhauling the social app’s verification system, and limiting the number of tweets users can see in a day.

For now, Twitter continues to use the blue bird logo, raising questions about the timeline of the overhaul, but Musk tweeted that “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds” suggesting that the brand transformation will be directly on the platform, as supposed to Facebook’s rebrand to Meta, which only impacted the parent company.

It is unclear is Musk thinks he can also change the language used around Twitter, such as “tweeting” and “retweeting”.

X marks the spot?

So, what Is Musk’s thinking behind the rebrand? It is no secret that Musk bought Twitter with big plans to transform the platform – the Tesla boss has also offered a running commentary of his plans through his own Twitter account.

Those plans included mass layoffs to reduce Twitter’s staff base, embracing what the billionaire describes as “freedom-of-speech” by reinstating many accounts that had been banned under the previous regime, and shifting the platform away from its advertising-based funding model to a subscription-based operation.

Musk in recent months has repeatedly warned that Twitter, facing steep losses in ad revenue, was on the edge of bankruptcy – citing the need to transform the way the social media company operates.

Musk’s decision to overhaul verification with the launch of Twitter Blue, which allows any user to become “verified” by paying for a monthly subscription, was one of the first steps in this change.

Twitter Blue (if it is going to be called that in future) users also gain access to several benefits, including priority placing in replies, no caps on reading tweets, and the ability to write tweets that surpass the 280-character limit. This longer-form tweet offering was seen as an attempt to take on other platforms such as Substack.

Yaccarino also specifically highlighted video and audio capabilities. Twitter currently provides Spaces as a live-streaming platform but could look beyond this to compete with the likes of Instagram or even YouTube.

But is there really a place for X to become the central app in people’s lives? Or will X mark the point for the final nail in Twitter’s coffin?