Technology Twitter is now called X

[Imranmt]

Content source

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/23/23804629/twitters-rebrand-to-x-may-actually-be-happening-soon

After Elon tweeted about it all night, the bird site is shedding its feathers.


X.com now redirects to Twitter.com, following a tweet from Twitter owner Elon Musk today, and an “interim X logo” will soon replace the Twitter bird logo. Leading up to the change, Musk spent a lot of time tweeting about it.

Around 12AM ET last night, he started tweeting — and did so for hours — about the Twitter rebrand to X, the one-letter name he’s used repeatedly in company and product names forever. It started with a tweet saying “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” followed by a second tweet adding that “if a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow.”

Musk then, over the next several hours, gestured at the change in between other posts and replies, tweeting things like “Deus X,” or replying to other users talking about it. At one point, he joined a Twitter Spaces session called “No one talk until we summon Elon Musk,” and sat silently for almost an hour before unmuting and confirming he would be changing Twitter’s logo tomorrow, adding “we’re cutting the Twitter logo from the building with blowtorches.”

Musk also reportedly sent an email last night to Twitter employees telling them the company would become X, and that it was the last time he would email from a Twitter address, according a Threads post from Platformer managing editor Zoe Schiffer. She added that she assumes he was talking about the logo, since Twitter’s business was already renamed X corp.



As for what the new logo will look like, Musk pinned a GIF that was posted by Sawyer Merritt, a Twitter user who offered the logo, which he said was used for his discontinued podcast. Later Musk said he was going with the “minimalist art deco” logo but would probably make changes to refine it later. Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino then shared the logo as well, saying “X is here! Let’s do this.” It’s now being used for Musk’s profile pic.



While some Musk fans applaud the change, or anything the man does, long time users of the messaging service aren’t particularly enthused by the change. Marques Brownlee, who joined the service back in 2009, says he’ll still call it Twitter, to which Musk responded, “Not for long.”

The letter “X” has been on just about everything Musk has touched for the last two-plus decades. X.com was the original name for Paypal; it’s in his SpaceX company name; it’s in the name for the Tesla SUV; it anchors X.Ai and his kid X Æ A-12; and he has said he wants to turn Twitter into “X, the everything app.” Now he’s finally doing something with the X.com domain he bought back from Paypal in 2017.

Finally rebranding the site will be the clearest declaration yet that this is no longer the same social network that it was before Musk purchased it last year. But it’s far from the only change in the Musk era of Twitter.

Most recently, Twitter said it would limit the number of DMs for non-paying users, a LinkedIn-like hiring feature showed up for Verified Organizations, and Musk said the site would soon let users post ”very long, complex articles” to the site. The article feature seems to be called Articles, but at one point was apparently called Notes — you know, the name for article site Substack’s Twitter clone, the debut of which, you may remember, was a little dramatic.

Twitter is being rebranded as X

The bird site may lose its logo on Monday.

www.theverge.com

 

[vtqhtr413]

Nine months into Musk’s takeover of the platform, some observers still strive to understand it as a business transaction. “Why rebrand Twitter? It's an incredibly strong brand — even among those who do not use it,” journalist Tom Harwood noted, accurately.

Bloomberg’s Matt Levine had a similar curiosity: I guess my question is, what was he paying for? Musk didn’t want Twitter for its employees (whom he fired) or its code (which he trashes regularly) or its brand (which he abandoned) or its most dedicated users (whom he is working to drive away); he just wanted an entirely different Twitter-like service. Surely he could have built that for less than $44 billion? Mark Zuckerberg did!

Here’s my answer: this framing misses the true shape of Musk’s project, which is best understood not as a money-making endeavor, but as an extended act of cultural vandalism. Just as he graffitis his 420s and 69s all over corporate filings; and just as he paints over corporate signage and office rooms with his little sex puns; so does he delight in erasing the Twitter that was.

Twitter becomes X

RIP Twitter (2007-2023)

www.platformer.news

 

[Ink]

Twitter, now X, took over the @x handle without warning or compensating its owner | TechCrunch

The value of having a one-letter username on X is questionable, given the company's future itself remains in question.

techcrunch.com

 

[monkeylove]

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Apple rejects new name 'X' for Twitter iOS app because... rules

Mr. Musk may have successfully pushed Twitter's new name and logo, 'X', and even made the vanity domain x.com redirect to the social media website, but that's not to say, the Mathematical double-struck letter will fit the bill everywhere.

Turns out, Apple's App Store can't accept the new name for Twitter's iOS app because of minimum character requirements.

"Twitter was able to change the logo of their iOS app but not the name, since Apple requires app names to be at least 2 characters," mocked San Francisco-based Erik Berlin.

While iOS app names "can be up to 30 characters long," they must be at least 2 characters in length, failing which the app name will be rejected by Apple

Apple rejects new name 'X' for Twitter iOS app because... rules

Mr. Musk may have successfully pushed Twitter's new name and logo, 'X', and even made the vanity domain x.com redirect to the social media website, but that's not to say, the Mathematical double-struck letter will fit the bill everywhere. Apple's App Store can't accept Twitter iOS app's new name...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[enaph]

Apple rejects new name 'X' for Twitter iOS app because... rules

Apple rejects new name 'X' for Twitter iOS app because... rules

Mr. Musk may have successfully pushed Twitter's new name and logo, 'X', and even made the vanity domain x.com redirect to the social media website, but that's not to say, the Mathematical double-struck letter will fit the bill everywhere. Apple's App Store can't accept Twitter iOS app's new name...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Weird, because mine has been updated:

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Weird, because mine has been updated:

View attachment 277494

Thanks, so that BleepingComputer article is not accurate anymore. Apple changed the rules for X.

 

[TairikuOkami]

Lets be honest. Twitter is going down. Whether it is intentional (conspiracy) or not, it will go down. Time to move to Threads, whether you like it or not. There is no alternative.

 

[Zappathustra]

Lets be honest. Twitter is going down. Whether it is intentional (conspiracy) or not, it will go down. Time to move to Threads, whether you like it or not. There is no alternative.

There is an excellent alternative: using neither.

 

[oldschool]

Lets be honest. Twitter is going down.

Hallelujah!

Hopefully Tesla will face government action over its bogus range/mileage ratings, just like VW.

 

[CyberDevil]

As good as Musk's space related projects have been, so terrible is everything else he does. I'd honestly be scared to also use his brain chips, given the quality of the cars and seemingly mild mental health issues in the background of what he's doing with Twitter.

 

[plat]

what he's doing with Twitter.

Not Twitter! X! X!

Not even that blue bird is hanging off the main HQ anymore. Now it's some disco-like X thing. flashing into other buildings and prob. driving some people nuts.

Elon Musk's New 'X' Sign at Twitter Headquarters is Very Bright, Very Stupid

Elon Musk decided to rename Twitter to "X" last week and it has quickly become apparent that no preparation was done beforehand to help facilitate the brand cha

www.thebiglead.com

Caution: bright flashing lights in the article's embedded media may trigger some.

 

[monkeylove]

Lets be honest. Twitter is going down. Whether it is intentional (conspiracy) or not, it will go down. Time to move to Threads, whether you like it or not. There is no alternative.

I think Threads was formed to be part of Meta, with Meta being a competitor to X.

That means superapps with multiple features.

 

[Ink]

Twitter, which is rebranding as X, is now listed as X in the iOS App Store, suggesting the app got special treatment from Apple to allow a single-character name. The renaming was briefly hindered by a rule forbidding single-character app names within the App Store — the actual app name on iPhones and iPads already showed up as X.

The exception could be a sign Apple wants to keep the hatchet buried with X owner Elon Musk. Late last year, the then-CEO of Twitter accused Apple of threatening to remove the Twitter app from the store. After meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk later said it was a simple “misunderstanding.”

Alongside the X rebranding, the company also updated its tagline in the store, from “it’s what’s happening” to “blaze your glory!” — a phrase that Musk tweeted (er, sorry, posted) this morning.

Twitter gets special permission to be ‘X’ in the iOS App Store

Twitter may have gotten an iOS App Store exception.

www.theverge.com

 

[jetman]

Musk is obviously a clever businessman, but I suspect he is losing Twitter customers quite rapidly.
It will be interesting to see if he makes a spectacular success of this 'super app' or whether the whole thing is going to implode.
I'd say its a 50 - 50 gamble at the moment.

 

[oldschool]

More shady, aggressive tactics by Musk, this time focused against the City of San Francisco.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/31/twitter-x-sign-headquarters-logo-taken-down/

“SHUT IT OFF!!” read one of two dozen complaints to the city’s Department to Building Inspection about the sign. “It is currently flashing rapidly and extremely brightly. It is creating a massive nighttime nuisance and making it hard to sleep.”

Such is the latest chapter in Elon Musk’s chaotic rebrand of Twitter into “X,” which first caused headaches for its hometown last week when the company illegally tried to remove its original logo from the outside of the building. Then, over the weekend, the company affixed a giant X above the building, prompting 24 complaints about its structural safety and bright lights, according to the city’s Department of Building Inspection.
On Monday, several residents of neighboring buildings said the blinding, flashing strobe light above the building in downtown San Francisco was so strong that shades were not enough to keep the lights out. Sam Chand, who lives across from the headquarters, said it was a nuisance for him and his fellow neighbors Sunday night.

“I don’t understand why it had to be blinking that bright,” he said, as a massive crane worked on the building Monday. “Subtlety is not (Musk’s) strength.”

While some people stopped to snap pictures of the scene Monday, others seemed to shrug it off as yet another episode in an ongoing loop of absurdities happening at the building in their neighborhood. As the company’s relationship with its hometown has become an increasingly fraught, the nearby residents have had plenty to get used to.
Over the past year alone, the company formerly known as Twitter has been sued for failing to pay millions in rent, investigated for illegally converting offices into bunk rooms and been the target of vitriolic statements from Musk, who has likened the city to a “derelict zombie apocalypse.”

Then, this weekend, a city building inspector tried twice to gain access to the new rooftop sign, according to the city’s complaint tracker. Representatives for the company refused to let the inspector in, allegedly telling the official that the structure “is a temporary lighted sign for an event,” the complaint said. The inspector explained to on-site X representatives that the structure must be removed or abide by city code.

The building’s property owner will be fined for the installation and removal of the structure, as well as the cost of the city’s investigation into the matter, according to Patrick Hannan, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Building Inspection.
Musk acquired the company for $44 billion last year and has made drastic changes since then, including shedding roughly 80 percent of the workforce primarily through layoffs, promoting more subscription services on the platform and restoring hundreds of previously banned accounts.

Matt Dorsey, a member of the Board of Supervisors whose district includes the X building, said he is trying to reach out to Musk via some of their mutual contacts so they can have a “productive” conversation about the company’s relationship with San Francisco.

He said the company’s actions over the past week have felt “adversarial” toward the city, and he can’t quite understand why Musk is allowing his company to act like that.

“They must know it was illegal, and I think they know better,” Dorsey said of the unpermitted installation of the sign. “I’m less concerned about the sign than what it may communicate about a contentious relationship with local government.”

 

[upnorth]

 

[monkeylove]

As shady as the competition, including the previous owners which overvalued the company.

 

[vtqhtr413]

Musk says he wants to rename Twitter X, and the Twitter logo has already changed on the app to a Unicode X. There’s some history here with Musk and X: when Peter Thiel defenestrated him from PayPal, it was because Musk wanted to rename PayPal. You are never going to guess what he wanted to change the name to, Musk wanted to change the popular PayPal branding to X, even though customer surveys indicated that wasn’t a good idea. Sacks decided that wasn’t going to happen and was among the architects of the coup that removed Musk, according to The PayPal Wars by Eric M. Jackson.

Credit where it’s due: Sacks made a good call here. Branding is important for consumer products, and making your payments company sound like a porn company is not a great idea. Which is why I am a little puzzled with the rebrand of Twitter; Sacks almost certainly knows better, and he’s involved. My colleague and sometimes drinking buddy Casey Newton has argued that the X rebrand is, effectively, a way to kill Twitter. I disagree that this is just an act of cultural vandalism, though it is certainly also that. I think what’s going on is less intentional than that — Musk probably did not mean to buy Twitter at all, and once he was stuck with it, he decided to see if he could use it to address some unfinished business.

Elon Musk wants a second chance to fail at X

Xed out.

www.theverge.com

 

[monkeylove]

X is the counterpart of Meta, which also wants to form a superapp.