Twitter’s iconic blue bird logo is gone—and the 17-year-old social media platform is now known as “X.”
On July 24, Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla billionaire who purchased the site last year for over $40 billion, implemented the rebrand after teasing the arrival of “X” via several tweets over the weekend.
The revamped Twitter has brought a few changes so far: the logo on the desktop site is now an X and if you visit X.com, it will redirect a user to Twitter’s site (and there’s a projection of the new logo on the company’s San Francisco headquarter building). It hasn’t yet changed the main @Twitter handle. Musk says tweets will eventually be called Xs.
Musk has made several changes since buying Twitter last year. On July 23 Musk tweeted, “We shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” as well as calling for users to post their best “X” logo for a chance for their design to be picked.
The basic “X” logo that was ultimately chosen has caused quite the stir—some users are poking fun at its simple design, as well as offering other ideas. One alternate option reimagines the iconic Twitter bird logo to include an “X” in it.
Musk chose “X” seemingly because he “likes the letter X,” and it appears to be an on-brand decision, considering one of his first ventures was an online bank known X.com, he’s founded spacecraft brand SpaceX and AI company X.AI, and one of his children is named X Æ A-Xii.
“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square,” wrote Linda Yaccarino, chief executive officer of Twitter, on July 23. “There’s absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can deliver, well… everything,” she continued.
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Many users aren’t welcoming the change, taking to Twitter (or, should we say, X) to voice their confusion and criticism. One user joked that signing onto new Twitter is like returning to Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House, the opposite of Barbie’s picturesque dream house in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. “Returning to Barbie Land to find the Dreamhouse has become the Mojo Dojo Casa House.” Others noted the meaning behind Twitter’s original name and logo.“It’s called Twitter because we tweet like little birds.”
Even other companies are getting in on the discourse, with the U.K.’s Channel 4 pointing out the difficulty in rebranding. “People still call our streaming service 4OD so good luck,” in reference to changing the name of its VoD service in November 2022.
Musk says he’s unbothered by the criticism. “Frankly, I love the negative feedback on this platform,” he tweeted on July 22. “Vastly preferable to some sniffy censorship bureau!”
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Write to Mariah Espada at mariah.espada@time.com