Twitter’s notorious bluebird is dead on July 23, Elon Musk decided to rebrand the social network simply as X, and we are honestly still getting used to it. Why is Twitter called X now?
But why, exactly, is your Twitter app now a mysterious, confusing X? What other changes( or disastrous blunders) does Elon Musk have in the channel? And what tropical hairpieces will be pulled from beneath our bases coming?
The change from Twitter to X is further than just a knee-haul rebrand, indeed if it feels that way. It’s formerly changing the way Twitter works, and Elon Musk has laid out a grand vision that could see it come more like an everything’ app in the tone of China’s WeChat.
Whether that is actually doable in reality is another matter, but for now, Twitter is changing further than just its name. Then are the changes that X has delivered beyond a new totem, and where it’s likely to go next. Hold on, this could be a rocky lift.
Why did Twitter Change to X?
Twitter’s abrupt rebrand to X came out of the blue on July 23, causing wide confusion among its 240 million global customers. But the reasons, which Elon Musk had suggested last time, ultimately came to the face.
The briefest explanation came from Musk himself in the Tweet (or is that Xeet?) below. In it, he explains that X Corp( the company formerly known as Twitter) bought the social network” as an accelerant for X, the everything app.”
As Twitter moves towards that lofty thing, Musk says the Twitter name no longer makes sense – particularly with X Corp planning to add” the capability to conduct your entire fiscal world” on the app” in the months to come”.
While Twitter’s rebrand to X was more abrupt and, honestly, dilettantish than anyone had anticipated, Musk preliminarily suggested at the plans above in a Tweet( as they were known also) on October 4, 2022. In it, he stated simply that” buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”.
Given that Musk is known for making fantastic statements, those claims were understandably treated with dubitation and Twitter carried on in joyful ignorance while absorbing some wild changes that ranged from scrapping heritage blue checkmarks to the late preface of rate limits.
But now Twitter has been given its most visible changes so far. The mobile app icons for iOS and Android are now X, while the cybersurfer interpretation carries the same branding( despite still being at the usualtwitter.com URL). Tweetdeck, the popular Twitter dashboard program, is now called XPro. Fujifilm could have some reservations about the name, considering its long- runningX-Pro series.
What’s New in X?
The X app and website are still, on the face, effectively Twitter in further boring clothes. It’s still a horribly addicting place to spout opinions, observe honey wars, and get your megahit of the rearmost news, memes, and weird viral trends. But under the hood, there’s nearly constant change. Also, Elon Musk has turned Twitter’s old verification system on its head.
As you can see from X’s sanctioned list of changes by month, there have been dozens of changes since November 2022. That is not including all of the numerous under-the-hood algorithm tweaks.
Most lately, on July 25, X Blue subscribers( who pay from$ 8/£9.60/AU$ 13 per month or$ 84/£100.80/AU$ 135 per time), were given the capability to download vids from X( below). Hilariously, subscribers have also been given the option to hide their blue verification ticks, suggesting that the ticks are far from an emblem of honor.
This followed an unforeseen swell in profit payouts to X Blue subscribers from July 13, which started awarding some content generators grounded on the announcement profit created in replies to viral tweets.
There have also been big bumps on the road to X. On July 1, rate limits were temporarily introduced on the point to” address extreme situations of data scraping and system manipulation”, according to Elon Musk. This limited the number of posts you could read in a day, but has ago been eased.
maybe the biggest change that Elon Musk’s Twitter preemption, and the X rebrand, have delivered is a complete upending of the social network’s verification system. preliminarily, verification was a way to guarantee the authenticity of accounts that were” notable and active”, because it was subject to internal blessing.
What’s Coming to X Next?
Elon Musk has been enough clear that he wants X, or what was formerly Twitter, to come” the everything app”. But what does that mean? The closest illustration is WeChat in China, which combines instant messaging, social media, and mobile payments in one app. WeChat presently has over a billion yearly active customers.
Whether or not it’s possible to produce a WeChat rival outside China remains to be seen, but it’s likely to be extremely delicate. For a launch, there are antitrust laws in the US that fix down on monopolies, as Amazon is presently discovering with the FTC( indeed if it seems likely that Amazon will escape calls for it to be broken up).
But Elon Musk and X Corp are clearly going to try to turn X into a fellow of WeChat. During the rebrand, Musk said,” In the months to come, we will add comprehensive dispatches and the capability to conduct your entire fiscal world.”
On August 3, Semafor reported that Musk has transferred out calls to fintech titans requesting quotations to make a real-time investment platform on the rebranded Twitter. Despite these reports that a stock-trading option could soon arrive on X, Elon Musk denied there was anything in it, stating that” no work is being done on this to the stylish of my knowledge.”
Still, taking on the likes of Robinhood and eToro seems certain to be in X’s future. Back in April, eToro partnered with Twitter to let customers incontinently see prices for a wide range of stocks and cryptocurrencies, and a prophet for the social trading’ platform told Semafor that” X is a decreasingly important part of the DIY investing community”.
So, if you were hoping that Twitter’s Dogecoin incident in April, which saw Elon Musk change the point’s totem to a shiba inu, was a one-off, brace yourself for further of the same.
The post Why is Twitter called X now? Elon Musk’s rebrand explained and where it’s going next first appeared on MikiGuru.