Elon Musk is rebranding Twitter to ‘X’ and killing the bird logo

Elon Musk’s rebrand of Twitter seems to be underway. In a series of late-night tweets Saturday, Musk shared that the company’s famous bird logo and name would soon be no more. The company, it seems, will simply be known as “X.”

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he tweeted. He later said in a Twitter space that the Twitter logo would be changed Sunday. “It should have been done a long time ago, sorry it took so long,” he said.

And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023

Later that night, he reportedly emailed employees about the change. According to Platformer’sZoe Schiffer, Musk emailed staff saying the company would become X and that his note “was the last email he’ll ever send from a Twitter email address.”

Twitter didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s long been known that Musk favors the “X” branding. The banking startup he co-founded in 1999 was called x.com, and his recently-announced Ai venture is called xAI. And Twitter’s holding company was rammed to X Corp in April. Musk has also talked about how X would help Twitter become an “everything app.” Though Musk has offered few specifics on this vision, many believe he’s referencing apps like WeChat, the most popular app in China that people use for a host of everyday activities, like payments and shopping, in addition to social networking.

X

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2023

Still, officially abandoning the Twitter brand could be a risky move for Musk. The company is already facing an advertiser exodus that’s resulted in a loss of more than half the company’s ad revenue. A rebrand could further alienate advertisers. At the same time, Musk may be betting that a new name and identity could help the company shed its ties to its former leadership and the decisions made under them, both of which he has been deeply critical of.

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