So the X era is now underway, with Twitter changing its name to X, and various Twitter elements now slowly switching from the well-known bird icon to the new X moniker, which was created by a fan, and which Elon Musk says is an interim branding measure.

The new icon is now appearing in various places in the app. On desktop, for example, the Twitter bird icon in the top left is now the new X.

The sign-up screen has now also been changed to the X logo, though still with Twitter colors.

Those are set to change too, with Musk looking to make black to focal scheme, but it looks like it might take a while for all of the tweet and bird references to be removed from the app.

Which begs the question: Why rush ahead with a half-baked re-brand on a Sunday, when it’s clearly not ready for a full launch?

Some have noted that this is just the way that Elon Musk works, pushing his teams towards difficult-to-meet goals, in order to make things happen faster, even if the end result isn’t perfect. Which is probably more of a concern when you’re dealing with rockets and self-driving cars, but in Twitter’s case, it’s led to more half-finished ideas and concepts rolling out, which generally work well enough, in most cases, but aren’t very polished, or fully functional.

The counter to that would be that previous Twitter management played things too safe, which saw updates held back for months, even years, as they tested and considered each aspect. Twitter, or X, is certainly now shipping things faster, but it’s actually not shipping any new ideas, as such, with all of the concepts and updates that Elon has overseen at the app thus far being previously experimental Twitter concepts, that Dorsey and Co. had opted not to launch in their current state.

Elon has had no such qualms, and has pushed out a range of updates, including creator subscriptions, long-form articles, keyword targeting for ads, and various other tweaks, all of which were under consideration before he arrived.  Most of the actual new elements, like job listings and video calls, are just now being launched, so really, we’re only just beginning to see the real X innovations, which could make this a good time to update the name.

But again, like the re-brand, most of these new elements feel rushed, and maybe this is just how it is when working under Elon, and these types of slowly evolving updates are what you can expect.

Tesla certainly ships a lot of software updates, gradually updating elements as they can. Maybe now is the time to officially cross Twitter over to mark that shift.  

Another theory is that this is a move to separate previous Twitter from its new process, which, in legal terms, could have implications for payouts, corporate filings, etc. The legal technicalities are complex, but it could be that by changing Twitter to a new entity, Elon and Co. might then be able to legally separate the two eras of the company, which could be helpful in some contexts.

Maybe, by becoming X, and making Twitter non-existent, that helps to force a renegotiation of certain contracts, and maybe that could be the actual motivation for the rapid re-brand, related to some pending timeline on a legal front.

We don’t know, of course. All we know is that Elon decided over the weekend that the time had come to make his long-held X vision a thing, and it does seem that, gradually, we’re going to see the bird logo disappear, as the new X branding becomes the default in all aspects.

It’ll take time, but essentially, Twitter is no more, and soon, your app icon will become an X, you’ll go to X.com to log in (which you can do already) and everything will shift into a very Elon-centric era for the app formerly known as Twitter.

There’s seemingly no definitive timeline, but expect to see the transformational occurring over the coming weeks.