Elon Musk shares plans to replace Twitter bird logo with an X

Larry the Bird has been Twitter’s logo since its creation in 2006.

Harry Stedman
Sunday 23 July 2023 11:04 BST
Elon Musk has suggested the Twitter bird could be replaced by an X (Alamy/PA)
Elon Musk has suggested the Twitter bird could be replaced by an X (Alamy/PA)

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Twitter owner Elon Musk appears to have suggested he will replace the social media platform’s bird logo with an X.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder, who bought the company in October, tweeted on Sunday morning: “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds”, before quickly adding: “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow”.

Thousands of users replied to Mr Musk with design suggestions before the 52-year-old shared a short video of an X with a flickering background.

The blue logo, known as Larry the Bird, has been Twitter’s emblem since its creation in 2006, with the current design in use since 2012.

In April, the logo was briefly replaced with a small picture of a Shibu Inu dog, famously known as the Doge meme, in an apparent nod to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

An email sent to Twitter’s business partners in the same month said it had been renamed as X Corp following a merger, but that the social media platform would retain its original name.

The move is the latest in a series of major alterations to Twitter since Mr Musk’s takeover, including the “verified” blue tick status being monetised in April and a temporary limit at the start of July on the number of posts users were allowed to read.

Facebook owner Meta launched Threads, its own text-based conversation app, earlier this month.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said more than 30 million people had signed up to use his rival messaging app in the first 24 hours.

Twitter threatened to sue the company over alleged stolen trade secrets.

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