Twitter lost its iconic blue bird logo as soon Monday after owner Elon Musk announced that an X logo would replace the logo as part of his long-term plan to turn the microblogging app into an “everything app.”

Musk changed the legal name of Twitter to X Corp. in April, merging the assets of Twitter into the new corporate entity. As reported at the time, X Corp. is a privately held corporation sitting under a parent corporation of X Holdings Corp.

The concept that Twitter would evolve into something new dates back to Musk’s acquisition of the company. Musk said in October 2022 that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” Laying out his vision for Twitter post-acquisition on Nov. 9, Musk also referenced Twitter becoming an everything app akin to China’s WeChat, saying that he believes Twitter should be a place of news consumption, entertainment and financial transactions.

The move to turn Twitter into X was also emphasized when Musk hired former NBC Universal Media LLC’s head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino, as Twitter’s chief executive in May. I’m “looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” Musk said alongside the announcement.

The news that the retirement of Twitter’s blue bird was nigh came through a series of tweets starting on Saturday, with Musk saying Sunday afternoon that the new X logo goes live later today.

https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy now points to https://t.co/AYBszklpkE.

Interim X logo goes live later today.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023

Yaccarino also took to Twitter to explain the change, stating 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” and that “Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”

In a separate tweet, Yaccarino also said X will transform the global town square.

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.

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 23, 2023

Like anything that comes out of Musk’s mouth, there have been critics of the proposed changes. The Associated Press quoted Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce saying that the change will be “very confusing to a huge chunk of Twitter’s audience, which has been already souring on the social platform given a slew of other major changes Musk has made.”

While Musk has continued to be targeted by criticism, attempts to build a viable Twitter rival continue to founder. Meta Platforms Inc. launched a rival service called Threads on July 5. Although the app saw initial strong growth, surging to more than 100 million registered users in its first week, less than a month later the app is reported to have only 13 million active users. Twitter, by comparison, is reported to have 237.8 million active daily users.

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