Elon Musk is continuing his unwelcomed overhaul of Twitter by dropping its iconic blue bird in favour of an ‘X’ symbol.
This was done in an attempt to offer its users an “entire financial world” in the coming months, according to Musk.
In a tweet posted today, Musk revealed that his enterprise X Corp acquired Twitter to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, his “everything app”. Some have drawn its similarities to the tech behemoth in China called ‘WeChat’.
The new Twitter platform would add comprehensive communications along with financial services. Owing to this, Musk “bid adieu to the bird” as it did not make sense anymore and stated that the messaging platform is to be called ‘X’ from now on.
Giving his reasoning behind the move, he said: “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.”
The change appeared on the web version of the platform on Monday morning. Instead of the blue bird, the logo is now seen as a white stylised ‘X’ on a black background.
As of now, the logo on mobile apps have not changed yet, though it is likely to happen once they are updated.
The site X.com now also redirects to Twitter. The inception of this domain goes back to 1999 when Musk had created it in hopes that it would become an all-in-one financial platform, which eventually became PayPal. However, the domain was then returned to Musk in 2017.
The newly appointed Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino, commented on the rebrand saying: “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.”
This is not the first in the list of changes since Musk bought Twitter for $44billion last year. Back in April, he briefly changed Twitter’s logo to that of Dogecoin which caused the $DOGE to surge 20% in the hour following the stunt which did not last for long.
This was followed by talks about Twitter reportedly introducing a new feature to allow users to trade crypto and stocks on the platform. It was said to be done in partnership with fintech platform eToro.
Recently, there was also the announcement of the platform limiting the number of daily direct messages unverified users can send. This change went into effect last week, according to a message on the help centre. The move was done in an effort to reduce spam.
If users want to increase the number of daily messages allowed, they will have to join the subscription service, which was launched last year.
The latest rebrand has also started rumours over a potential Dogecoin integration for payments on the platform. This started when users noticed a $DOGE symbol added to Musk’s profile along with the X.
Twitter’s new form comes as the social media giant continues to face competition from Meta’s new app, Threads, which was launched earlier this month.
While some were thrilled with the new changes, others said that they would still call the platform by its old name.
