Twitter has officially rebranded to "X" after owner Elon Musk changed its iconic bird logo Monday, marking the latest major shift since his takeover of the social-media platform.
The change follows a chain of Musk’s companies that incorporate the letter “X.”
Earlier this month, he launched the artificial intelligence company xAI, whose mission statement is “to understand reality.”
Musk bought the site x.com back from PayPal in 2017, saying then that it had "sentimental value." The domain could soon link to Twitter's home page.
Musk tweeted Sunday that the idea of changing the logo to “X” was to “embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique.” He wrote: “and soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
The thinking is in the same vein as the poet E.E. Cummings, an American poet who wrote his poems in all lowercase letters. Cummings' use of all lowercase letters was intended to convey a sense of rebellion against conventional rules of language and syntax.
The website Twitter.com remains active. Branding on the app version of the platform did not appear to change as of Monday, but Twitter’s bird logo changes to X.
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, the former head of ad sales for NBCUniversal, said in a series of posts that the rebrand is the start of a move to push the app in new directions.
“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression,” she wrote. “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”
She wrote that "X is the future state of unlimited interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine."
Musk has talked about turning Twitter into an integrated app since he bought the platform last year, calling it an "everything app." An everything app could become the backbone of Tesla.
The concept of an everything app, often referred to as a "super app," is popular in Asia. Reuters reported last year that tech companies across the world have tried to replicate it. Some examples include WeChat with more than 1 billion monthly users, according to one estimate. Users can hail a car or taxi, send money to friends and family or make payments at stores. In 2018, some Chinese cities began testing WeChat for an electronic identification system that would be tied to users' accounts, according to Reuters, citing the South China Morning Post.