Twitter may only be hours away from being called simply “X” as Elon Musk hinted on Sunday at the biggest social media brand name shortening since Facebook dropped the “the.”
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he tweeted — or whatever we’re supposed to call it now — at midnight. He followed minutes later by suggesting, “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow.” The company’s executive chairman continued with more cryptic messaging such as a “Deus X” tweet one hour later and logo design tips like “If X is closest in style to anything, it should, of course, be Art Deco.”
Meanwhile, he joined a Twitter Spaces session titled “No one talk until we summon Elon Musk” (at about the 01:03:00 mark) to confirm that the logo would be changing and “it should’ve been done a long time ago. Sorry it took so long.” After apologizing for background interruptions while apparently playing Diablo 4, he claimed “we’re cutting the Twitter logo from the building with blowtorches… it’s got to come off somehow.”
On Sunday afternoon, he followed up with news that the URL “X.com now points to twitter.com” and that an “interim” logo will go live “later today.”
According to a Threads post by Platformer editor Zoe Schiffer, Musk notified Twitter employees of the change to “X” via email that night, which he referred to as the “last email he’ll ever send from a Twitter email address.”
The new name change follows Musk’s personal line of corporate branding, from entities like SpaceX and xAI to Twitter’s own shift from Twitter, Inc. to X Corp. in April. But to make sure his late-night title change tease was absolutely clear, he tweeted, “Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X.”
And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Deus X
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
If X is closest in style to anything, it should, of course, be Art Deco
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X pic.twitter.com/nwB2tEfLr8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy now points to https://t.co/AYBszklpkE.
Interim X logo goes live later today.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
