Live: Twitter’s strange X rebranding explained as the blue bird disappears

How did we get here?

The Twitter rollercoaster since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022 has had so many ups and downs that it can be hard to keep track. So for a quick tour of Musk’s first six months as CEO — before Linda Yacarino takes over the reins in late June — scroll through our timeline below.

The “fun” begins with Musk holding an open brainstorming session shortly after the $44 billion acquisition ability to recover wine (original short video app), after which today we have the first blunder of the controversial Twitter Blue amendment.

Twitter Blue to go live in November 2022, to relaunch in December and beyond Twitter cracked third-party apps in a sudden and controversial way, We don’t know about you, but we’re getting a little sore neck from this roller coaster — several Twitter users are apparently sailing onboard for calmer waters wires,

Why this happens: Principle no. 3

Remember when Elon Musk changed the Twitter logo to a Shiba Inu whose face dogecoin Cryptocurrencies in April? Overnight rebrands are nothing new, which has led some to speculate that this isn’t a rebrand at all, but just another example of Elon Musk’s focus on boosting the economy.

While the move certainly has the hallmarks of a publicity stunt — the logo is a crowdsourced design and initially composed of the Unicode ? symbol — it is almost certainly not another Dogecoin moment. The transition from Twitter to X has been promised by Musk for a long time, and unfortunately we won’t be seeing a return of the Blue Bird based on the announcements so far.

Why this happens: Principle no. 2

As always with Elon Musk’s ventures, conspiracy theories abound. with Musk previously warned of bankruptcy A rebrand has been a possibility for Twitter, with some suggesting that this rebrand could be part of a ploy to get out of the site’s dire financial situation.

Bankruptcy could, theoretically, help Twitter refinance its debts on metas threads Some suggest this may be a way to protect the Twitter brand before future sales, if X files for bankruptcy.

Of course, this is all highly speculative, but clearly Musk isn’t going to wipe out a globally recognized brand like Twitter regardless of the financial implications.

Why this happens: Principle no. 1

It has to be said that Twitter’s rebranding to X isn’t entirely unexpected – Elon Musk said in October 2022 with the above tweet that he intended X to be an “everything app”.

He then added that buying Twitter in a $44 billion deal would “probably add 3 to 5 years of upside to X.” Since then, many have questioned the wisdom of trying to create an “everything app” like WeChat, as tech regulation will surely eventually try to break it.

But the headwinds of public opinion haven’t deterred Musk before, and it looks like he’s moving forward with plans to turn Twitter into the ubiquitous app it was, anyway…

Why is Twitter turning to X?

Before we delve into the deeper reasons for Twitter’s rebrand, why X? After all, it’s a pretty bland, some might even say boring, replacement for the charming (and globally recognized) blue Twitter bird.

Well, Elon Musk seems to have an obsession of sorts with X. He started X.com in 1999, which later became part of PayPal – then launched SpaceX (the rocket and spacecraft company), the Tesla Model X and most recently xAI (a Generative Artificial Intelligence venture).

So eliminating the Twitter logo with an X is very on-brand for Musk’s businesses, given how it fits into his growing collection of tech brands. But it also perhaps marks the beginning of Twitter’s transformation from a messaging app to an “everything” app which takes us back to early attempts to disrupt the traditional banking industry…

Blue Bird is gone!

Twitter isn’t messing around with this X rebranding. For us, the blue bird logo is now gone from the web version of the homepage – it will likely be the same with the mobile app soon.

This all follows the somewhat bewildering launch of the new X logo on the Twitter building last night, which looks more like a scene from a Batman movie than a rebrand of one of the world’s most beloved social networks.

It’s all causing Twitter to ask “What’s up?” Makes the sign seem even more appropriate today…

What exactly is the plan behind Twitter’s X rebranding? Twitter CEO Linda Yacarino tries to explain the vision (above), making it sound like the app wants to be an all-encompassing answer to WeChat.

Yacarino argues that messaging will be another part of the new Twitter, along with “payments/banking” (interestingly, Musk’s parent X.com merged with PayPal in March 2000) to help create a “global marketplace”. Looks like memes may be taking a bit of an edge on Twitter…

There’s only one place to start today’s tech news: Twitter’s overnight rebranding by X. It started with the above tweet from Elon Musk yesterday, which heralded a quick makeover for the social media site that saw it sport a new logo.

Over the next few hours, Musk participated in a Twitter space chat (where he said “we’re cutting the Twitter logo off the building with a blowtorch”) and changed his Twitter profile to the new logo.

So what’s really going on? As usual with Musk, his method to the apparent madness is somewhat nebulous, but it probably belongs to Musk. Recent announcement of XAI And his desire to make Twitter a ubiquitous app in China’s WeChat guide. More information on this soon…