Twitter has ditched the lovable bird who was known for tweeting and replaced it with the letter X. But why? What does that mean for the platform and what further changes can we expect to see? Just like the musical said, it looks like it’s “Bye Bye Birdie”.
Above, you can see a workman removing the previous Twitter sign from their headquarters in San Francisco. That’s because Twitter is no longer called that. They haven’t just changed the logo, they’ve changed the name of the platform. Now, it will be known as X. The name itself screams Elon Musk. While it makes no sense to the rest of us, it has his vibe.
The internet is again a chaotic place thanks to the recent changes to Twitter. Since Elon Musk came to power on the app, it’s been a place for going against the grain and making irrational decisions with no consideration for the users of the platform. The idea behind X is, to create a place where users can do “everything”.
X still asks users to tweet
While the platform still encourages users to tweet, they’re moving away from this being their selling point. “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” said Linda Yaccarino the CEO of Twitter.
Elon Musk has announced publicly he intends to turn the platform into a super-app similar to that of WeChat which is popular within China. Users of the WeChat platform can call, message, listen to podcasts, shop and watch video content, all in one place. Twitter currently allows longer direct messages, live audio and video sharing.
Why X?
It seems the plan is to expand on what they currently have. But why X when we all know it as Twitter? Well, it’s simple, Elon Musk loves the letter X. His original start-up went by this name, until it merged and became PayPal. His space venture is known as SpaceX, one of his early Tesla’s is known as Model X, and recently he has launched the artificial intelligence app xAI.
Clearly, there isn’t much more to it than he loves the letter, having been known to say “it’s just X. The letter X” when discussing his son’s name X Æ A-XII. It didn’t take long for him to rename Twitter. This is unfortunate, because it’s been said it’s unlikely for any buyer to want the platform now. However, at this current time, it doesn’t seem the platform will change.
