Elon Musk announces new Twitter logo amidst "X" rebranding

Twitter owner Elon Musk revealed a rebranding of the Twitter logo, signalling yet another pivot to the platform since Musk took over the company last year.

The previous logo, the iconic blue bird, will be replaced by an "X" logo in a "minimalist art deco" rebranding. Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed the change after Musk teased the new design, tweeting "X is here! Let’s do this."

X is here! Let’s do this. pic.twitter.com/1VqEPlLchj

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 24, 2023

Musk had appealed to his 149 million followers for design ideas and appears to have chosen a logo that he had flagged on Sunday via a flickering video pinned to the top of his Twitter feed. The logo is apparently the winner of an unofficial design contest amongst Musk's 149 million followers, the billionaire selecting a logo after appealing to them on through a tweet.

The rebrand comes after months of changes to the social media platform. Musk has in the past pledged "X" as his "everything app", an app that channels the multifunctionality of China's WeChat. Musk's "X" would, in theory, serve a multitude of functions, from messaging to payments.

"You basically live on WeChat in China," Musk reportedly told Twitter staff last June, "If we can recreate that with Twitter, we’ll be a great success."

The world's richest man has had a turbulent history with the messaging app after buying it for 40 billion euros in October. He unveiled the Twitter Blue subscription service in the end of 2022, in which users would pay a monthly fee of about €8 in order to become verified.

But doing away with the Twitter name and logo entirely is a big step for the company, as it seemingly transitions into Elon's dream "everything app".