Tech billionaire Elon Musk replaced the company’s blue bird silhouette with “X,” a term for what he has described as an “everything app.”
Elon Musk has made one of the most visible changes to Twitter since he took control of the social media company last fall: replacing its widely recognized bird logo. The bird is called Larry which Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone said, in 2011, is a tribute to basketball star and Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird.
In a tweet early Sunday 23rd July, Mr. Musk said that “soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” He further explained that the idea of changing the logo to “X” was to “embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique.” About 24 hours later, a stylized, black-and-white X appeared on the company’s website in place of the blue bird logo.
Twitter’s corporate accounts also adopted the new branding, which was projected onto the side of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco overnight. “Lights. Camera. X!” Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s chief executive, posted on the site, accompanying a photo of the building.
“X” is a term for what Mr. Musk has described as an “everything app” that could combine social media, instant messaging, and payment services.
Mr. Musk has said that buying Twitter is “an accelerant to creating X,” and the corporate entity he created to purchase and control Twitter is called X Holdings.
Mr. Musk spoke on a Twitter audio live stream early Sunday to say he was changing Twitter’s logo. “It should have been done a long time ago,” he said. “Sorry, it took so long.”
A few hours later, Mr. Musk said in an email to Twitter’s employees that “We are indeed changing to X.”
“This is my last message from a Twitter email,” he wrote, before signing off with a salute emoji.