Why we shouldn’t be surprised that Musk is re-branding Twitter as an X

Technology always seems to be undergoing changes these days, but to erase the beloved blue bird of Twitter and replace it with a cold, art deco style black X has caught everyone off guard and scratching their heads. But if we dig a bit deeper, and understand the history of Elon Musk, we’ll get some clues to why he did it. Whether it’s going to work or not with Twitter is another story.

“The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video. In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird.” says Musk.

Musk has a long history of using the letter X in his business:

• He originally had X.com as an online bank which merged with another startup to later become PayPal.
• There’s a Model X of his Telsa electrical cars.
• His artificial intelligence company is xAI.
• He named his own son X Æ A-12 Musk (called “X” for short, and the “Æ”part is pronounced “Ash” (Personally I’d rather be “Ash” than “X” – but that’s just me…) The “Æ”part also means artificial intelligence and love in several languages, including Japanese. Then “A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favourite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent,” says Grimes, the mother of his child. Tellingly, “X” stands for “the unknown variable” and I think that sums it up: there are a lot of unknowns about where this X is going to go.

The picture below is from Clay Jones “You know what it means when the canary dies in the coal mine.”

Musk has big dreams for Twitter (or should I say “X”), in terms of creating a super app like China’s WeChat.

As someone who has actually navigated Chinese apps trying to get ESL students, let me tell you, WeChat is all encompassing. It’s like WhatsApp for messaging (they tend not to use email, rather communicate on WeChat) plus you can pay for everything using it. You can even do a class on WeChat. I’ve got it on my laptop and phone. But let me tell you, it was a mission to get in, you have to be verified by an existing user.

I’m not sure if the style of the apps are the same, but I guess Musk likes the power in an all in one system.

Time will tell if his ideas are actually going to work with Twitter.

If he does change the url it will be a huge mission for us bloggers to change all our social sharing apps. So let’s hope at least that stays the same, but I guess it can be changed.

In the meantime – are you on Threads? What do you think? And are you using it? You can easily access Threads with your Instagram login info – but it doesn’t have hashtags or direct messaging. It does have the ability to use links though – so this might be a good option to put your posts out there.

Share your thoughts in the comments!