Whereas Musk has a penchant for sharing memes, and has even changed the Twitter brand with a picture of a Shiba Inu prior to now, this time it seems he isn’t joking.
Up to now few hours, a brand new X brand has appeared on the official Twitter account and the net model of Twitter as captured within the screenshot beneath.
Twitter X branding on desktop
/ Screenshot by Alan MartinOn the time of writing, the cell apps are but to replace and mirror the change.
The identical icon has been projected onto the corporate’s headquarters in San Francisco, in keeping with a picture shared by Musk on Monday morning. Even the X.com web site URL redirects to Twitter.
So, what does the change imply for customers of the favored social platform? Learn on to search out out why Twitter modified its brand, whether or not the agency may even eliminate tweets, and the reactions the overhaul is producing.
Why is Twitter’s brand altering?
Twitter’s abrupt rebrand stems partly from Musk’s fondness for the letter X, which has popped up all through his trailblazing profession. Additionally it is carefully linked to his try to show the news-led social community into a brilliant app that provides every little thing from funds to TikTok-style movies.
In accordance with creator Walt Isaacson, who shadowed Musk for 2 years whereas writing his biography, he deliberate to rebrand Twitter as X.com even earlier than he took management of the corporate.
The idea for Twitter as X crystalised in October 2022, when Musk tweeted that buying the platform “is an accelerant to creating X, the every little thing app”. In March of this 12 months, Musk merged Twitter Inc. right into a newly registered entity known as X Corp. A month later in April, he created a brand new firm devoted to synthetic intelligence known as X.AI.
“X would be the platform that may ship … every little thing,” concluded Twitter’s CEO, Linda Yaccrino, on Sunday. In a sequence of posts, she steered the rebrand gave the corporate an opportunity to make a brand new impression on customers.
Nodding to Musk’s plans to create a brilliant app, she added that X could be an AI-powered platform “centered in audio, video, messaging, funds/banking”.
Why X?
The origins of Musk’s fascination with the letter X will be traced again to 1999. That’s when he based a monetary start-up known as X.com, which might later grow to be the funds big PayPal after its merger with an organization co-founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.
Musk would ultimately go away the agency, partially as a result of he needed the corporate’s identify to stay X.com. After that, Munch launched House Exploration Applied sciences Company, which might be referred to as SpaceX. His electrical automobile firm Tesla additionally boasts a Mannequin X car, and X is even the identify of his son with musician Grimes.
Is that this a whole rebrand?
It’s unclear if the rebrand will embody all elements of Twitter’s performance. The platform’s options – together with tweets and retweets, hashtags and DMs – have velocity into on-line lexicon. Musk and co shall be laborious pressed attempting to persuade customers to embrace new phrases.
There was a sign that the phrase “tweet” could be dropped, with Musk responding to 1 person that they’d now be known as “x’s”. However, as ever with Musk, it’s laborious to know what the reality actually is.
For now, the rebrand seems restricted to the net. Twitter’s brand and identify are nonetheless intact on its iPhone and Android apps.
Current parallels are laborious to return by. Fb rebranded as Meta in 2021 however there’s a key distinction: Fb, the product, nonetheless exists – it’s simply the mother or father firm that has a distinct identify. With Twitter’s shift to X, it seems to be like 17 years of branding and public familiarity shall be solid apart.
How have folks reacted?
Usually, there was bemusement as to why an skilled entrepreneur would so willingly abandon a brand that has grow to be acquainted to everybody throughout the web.
Others are unimpressed {that a} billionaire with primarily limitless branding budgets couldn’t give you a greater brand.
Itis extensively thought to be one other misstep in an possession not precisely wanting missteps.
For others, they determined they’d by no means truly use the brand new branding, sticking to Twitter, tweeting and retweets even when they’re not the official phrases.
“I’m nonetheless gonna name it Twitter,” the YouTuber Marques Brownlee advised his six million followers. “Not for lengthy,” replied Musk. We will see.
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