CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Elon Musk revealed the new "X" logo for Twitter Monday. This is one of the first times a major app has changed its name so drastically.
Abrar Al-Heeti, CNET Culture and Trends reporter, said it's new territory.
"Twitter has really built up this identity, this brand and this image," Al-Heeti told WCNC Charlotte. "And it's really just more of a memory in a point of time now, but it's really now shifting over to X."
It is unclear what this change will mean for the user experience beyond the platform's appearance and terminology.
The biggest change is that users will no longer see the iconic blue bird icon. Instead, the "X" logo now appears in the top corner of the website. The "X" is already appearing on the desktop version Monday morning and changes are anticipated to the mobile app.
Vernacular
The change also introduces new vocabulary for the social media site.
"It's no longer called a 'tweet,'" Al-Heeti said referring to the traditional name for individual posts. "It's an X. So, it's going to be a bit of adjustment for users."
"Retweets" may also become a thing of the past. Musk said that the concept of retweets might need to be rethought, Al-Heeti told WCNC Charlotte. As of Monday, the button to republish someone else's post was still labeled as a "retweet."
More changes to come
Users could see more changes to the platform, which Musk reportedly wants to diversify as a place for audio, messaging and even financial payments. Musk tweeted last October that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”
"So, this is kind of just taking a step in that direction and making that big vision, potentially, a reality," Al-Heeti said.
The choice of rebranding could be seen as a way for the platform, which has faced scrutiny since Musk bought it last year, to restart.
End of an era
For Musk's critics, this feels like the end of an era for Twitter.
"Now that the name no longer exists and that logo no longer exists, there might be more of a push for people to leave Twitter and go to other platforms," Al-Heeti said. "It's that nail in the coffin... for a lot of people."
Some who have already left Twitter, are trying out new alternatives, such as Threads, which was launched by Meta this month. Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook, received its own rebranding in 2021. Meta's new name was intended to distinguish itself from its most popular platform. Although Facebook rebranded its company name to Meta, its platforms Facebook and Instagram kept their original names.
"I think it's gonna be really hard for X, formerly Twitter, to keep people on the platform who were really hanging on because of the legacy it had," Al-Heeti said. "It's going to be very much an uphill battle for X."
The Associated Press contributed to this report