Twitter X? Elon Musk reveals shakeup to axe the Twitter bird
San Francisco, California – Twitter owner Elon Musk has suggested he will replace the social media platform’s bird logo with an X – sooner rather than later.
Will X mark the spot for Twitter?
The Tesla and SpaceX founder, who bought the company in October, tweeted on Sunday morning: "And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds," before quickly adding: "If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow."
He then suggested a black background with a white X for inspiration.
Thousands of users replied to Musk with design suggestions before the 52-year-old shared a short video of an X with a flickering background.
The blue logo, known as Larry the Bird, has been Twitter’s emblem since its creation in 2006, with the current design in use since 2012.
In April, the logo was briefly replaced with a small picture of a Shibu Inu dog, famously known as the Doge meme, in an apparent nod to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
An email sent to Twitter’s business partners in the same month said it had been renamed as X Corp following a merger, but that the social media platform would retain its original name.
What is happening with all the Twitter changes?
The move is the latest in a series of major alterations to Twitter since Musk’s takeover, including the "verified" blue tick status being monetized in April and a temporary limit at the start of July on the number of posts users were allowed to read.
Facebook owner Meta launched Threads, its own competing text-based conversation app, earlier this month. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said more than 30 million people had signed up to use his rival messaging app in the first 24 hours.
Twitter threatened to sue the company over alleged stolen trade secrets, as Musk accused Meta of "cheating."
Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / NurPhoto