X.com now redirects to Twitter; get ready to see blue bird replaced with ‘X’ today

Twitter owner Elon Musk announced on Sunday (July 23) night (India time) that the app’s well-recognised bird logo would be replaced with an “Interim X logo” later in the day. He did not specify the time, but till 8 am on Monday (India time), it had not happened.

In a series of tweets earlier on Sunday (July 23), Musk had said that his team was working on changing the ‘bird’ logo of the microblogging site, and a replacement may be introduced by Monday. However, within hours he tweeted that the “Interim X logo goes live later today”.

He replied to a user that his team was “cutting the Twitter logo off the building with blow torches”.

Also read: ‘Adieu to all the birds’: Twitter to change logo, says Elon Musk

What is X.com?

In the latest tweet, Musk wrote that the web address X.com was now redirecting to Twitter. Musk’s history with the domain name X.com goes back all the way to 1999. It was an online bank he co-founded in Palo Alto, California.

A year later, X.com merged with Confinity, which operated PayPal. The next year, the entire company was rebranded as PayPal, but Musk had already left the company. But in 2017, Musk bought the defunct domain name X.com from PayPal.

Now, it looks all set for bigger things. Musk tweeted on Sunday that the idea of changing the logo to “X” was “To embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique”.

What’ll be new?

After Musk’s latest tweet on Sunday, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino posted: “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.”

Also read: Musk: Twitter losing cash as advertising is down and firm is carrying heavy debt

Earlier in the day, she tweeted: “It’s an exceptionally rare thing — in life or in business — that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”

Both tweets were retweeted by Musk. He hired Yaccarino, the then chairman of advertising and partnerships at NBC Universal, to lead Twitter in May.

Musk has kept his cards close to his chest so far, mysteriously tweeting that “If X is closest in style to anything, it should, of course, be Art Deco”.

Twitter now faces stiff competition from Meta’s new app, Threads, launched earlier this month. Threads is being billed as a text-based version of Meta’s Instagram. Within the first five days of its launch, 100 million people signed up on Threads.