New Twitter 'X' Logo Sparks Avalanche of Jokes, Memes

The launch of Twitter's new "X" logo on Monday caused a flurry of excitement on the social media platform, as users rushed to praise or mock it.

Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last fall, had asked his 149 million Twitter followers for help with ideas for a new logo and he appears to have chosen a fan-created design to replace the blue bird logo that the app previously used—with some tweaks—since its public inception in 2006.

The new "X" logo is thought to be part of Musk's drive for a new type of platform he had revealed that he's hoping to create the "everything app," which is modelled on a Chinese app called WeChat that allows users to send messages, perform banking tasks, pay bills, and order cabs.

The company's latest logo rebrand began when Musk tweeted an intriguing flickering video on Sunday night that featured a black screen with the iconic blue bird disappearing under the new logo. He appeared to be crediting a Twitter user called Sawyer Merritt who replied confirming he had created the 3-second clip using a logo a colleague had created.

The colleague also replied confirming he had designed it and that Musk could "have it for free." Musk's post featuring the video was retweeted 66,000 times and liked almost 260,000 times by the early hours of Monday morning.

Musk tweeted a photo of the company's headquarters on Sunday night, which showed the new logo beamed onto the side of the building.

Twitter's CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted a picture of the new logo with the words "X is here! Let's do this." She added: "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[...] There's absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can deliver, well....everything. @elonmusk and I are looking forward to working with our teams and every single one of our partners to bring X to the world."

Newsweek reached out to Twitter on Monday by email requesting further information and comment.

However, the new logo has proved divisive with some Twitters users, who true to form reacted with a host of memes and jokes.

A user with the profile name greg poked fun at the trouble the thumbnail of the new logo could cause. Before the change was made, he posted a screenshot of his phone showing the apps for Stripe (logo "S"), ESPN (logo "E") and Twitter (which was then a bird but was soon to become an X). The change would mean his apps spelled out the word "sex." He wrote: "I should probably rearrange my apps before the logo changes."

A Twitter user calling himself Mr Black tweeted a split screen showing the old and new Twitter logos side by side. "One good thing about the X transition is that Twitter users will now be called X-men," he tweeted.

A social media user going under the name Pratham shared a graphic showing the evolution of Twitter's logos, revealing how the blue bird was modified until it was scrapped entirely in favor of X.

Some were not impressed with the new logo. A user called Rhonda LE tweeted: "I've grown to love the bluebird. It seems friendly, whereas 'X' sounds too mechanical, too inhuman. And inputs will no longer be 'tweets,' I guess. What will they be called? Contentions? Data input? Posits?" Others argued it was a shame to lose the iconic bird.

But some said they were fans of the redesign. A user with the handle the_ring_lord replied to Musk saying: "I like the new X logo... but I'm still calling it 'Twitter' for the next 25 years."

Since Musk's takeover of the company last year, there have been a number of reports of financial troubles, including being sued by landlords in January who alleged the firm had not paid rent on its offices in London and San Francisco. The case has not yet been heard.

While some users claimed to be disgusted with the brand under Musk's stewardship and vowed to leave the site, others have praised the new boss, particularly after some users received advert revenue payouts earlier this month from the company on the back of their successful tweets.