Bye bye birdie. Elon Musk says Twitter is changing its logo to the letter X

July 23rd, 2023

A Twitter app icon on a mobile phone is displayed in Philadelphia, U.S.A., April 26, 2017. Elon Musk plans to change the logo of Twitter to an “X” from the bird, marking what would be the latest big change since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

More changes are coming to Elon Musk’s Twitter, as the billionaire owner of the site announced plans to replace the company’s iconic blue bird logo with the letter “X.”

An interim new logo is expected to go live sometime on Sunday, Musk said, as he announced that the URL X.com would now automatically redirect users to Twitter.

Taken together, the two changes mark the latest and arguably most dramatic changes for the social platform since the billionaire’s purchase last year.

Musk announced on Twitter the possibility of a new logo shortly after midnight on Sunday. He also posted a video of what may possibly the new design, a black and white san-serif “X.”

“Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X,” Musk wrote.

Musk hinted at the change as early as October of last year when he was days away from officially owning the company. “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” he said on Twitter.

Musk’s vision for an “everything app” has been compared to platforms like the ubiquitous WeChat app in China.

“He wants to create an app similar to how WeChat is used in China, where it’s part of the fabric of day-to-day life. You use it to communicate, to consume news, to buy things, to pay your rent, to book appointments with your doctor and even to pay fines,” Ashlee Vance, the author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, told NPR in a May interview.

For years, the billionaire has been known for having an affinity for the letter X — though he has shared little explanation as to why.

In one of his earliest ventures, Musk called his online bank X.com. That name was later dropped when the platform merged with a competitor to become PayPal.

“Everyone tried to talk him out of naming the company that back then because of the sexual innuendos, but he really liked it and stuck with it,” said Vance.

“X” is already the name of Tesla’s third electric car model, which debuted in 2015. Musk’s spaceflight company is also widely referred to as SpaceX. And in 2020, Musk and his then-partner, the Canadian musician Grimes, named their youngest son “X Æ A-12.”