So what do we call Twitter now anyway?

With a easy identify change, Elon Musk has created confusion in social media.

The bewilderment stems from Musk’s transfer final month to rebrand Twitter, which he owns, as X. No main social media app has undergone such a reputation change earlier than, no less than whereas it had tens of thousands and thousands of lively customers.

In 2016, Snapchat dropped “chat” from its company identify, however saved the app’s identify unchanged. When Facebook modified its father or mother firm identify to Meta in 2021, it additionally left the identify of its flagship social community alone.

The rebranding has been hair-raising for Twitter followers, who embraced the corporate’s iconic blue-and-white chicken brand and used a bird-related lexicon when speaking in regards to the platform. A tweet referred to a submit; tweeting was a verb for posting, and sharing one other individual’s submit was generally known as retweeting.

Some individuals have questioned if the X identify will stick, particularly with the phrase tweets nonetheless showing on the location. The app’s residence button can also be nonetheless formed like a birdhouse, and the corporate’s web site – no less than for now – stays Twitter.com.

So is the Twitter identify retired? And will we now name a tweet a “xeet” or “xcerpt?”

Really, what will we name Twitter now? Sorry, die-hard Twitter followers: It’s X.

X stated its app would definitively be known as X going ahead. In advertising and marketing copy, the corporate declared, “The X app is the trusted digital town square for everyone.” The app has a brand new slogan, too: “Blaze your glory!” (Twitter’s earlier tag traces included “Let’s talk” and “It’s what’s happening.”)

The Associated Press additionally up to date its stylebook, which many regard because the gold commonplace, to replicate the identify change. It advised that media shops name the corporate and its social media platform “X, formerly known as Twitter.”

Musk had laid the groundwork for the identify change for a while. When he purchased Twitter final 12 months, he shaped a brand new father or mother firm, X Corp., for the transaction.

In different phrases, individuals at the moment are utilizing X, an app by X Corp.

Musk is slowly purging Twitter’s model digitally and bodily. While Twitter.com nonetheless sends customers to the service’s acquainted homepage, so does X.com, indicating that the web site may quickly change. The chicken branding that adorned the web site and the app has been eradicated.

Musk additionally briefly erected a light-up X signal atop the corporate’s San Francisco’s headquarters final week. (It was eliminated this week after a allow dispute.) And he changed the bird-themed names of convention rooms at X’s places of work with X-themed names together with “eXposure,” “eXult” and “s3Xy,” and ordered the removing of chicken logos across the constructing.

What will we name tweets?

Tweets at the moment are posts. In the identical app replace that worn out the chicken brand, the corporate swapped its traditional blue “tweet” button for one that claims “post.”

Some customers have proposed different names for posts. One suggestion has been “xeets,” (pronounced zeets), an X-themed play on tweets. Others advised “xcerpts.” None of those phrases appear to have caught on in a giant method, no less than to this point.

Some of the app’s different monikers can also change. Retweets are more likely to develop into reposts, whereas quote tweets – which seek advice from retweets that add one’s personal commentary – may develop into feedback or quote posts.

Why did this variation occur?

Musk has lengthy been enamored with creating an organization known as X. In 1999, he began X.com, a web based financial institution that later merged with the digital funds service PayPal. Nearly 20 years later, he purchased the X.com web site again from PayPal.

Musk has stated that he envisions X as an “everything app” that can enable customers to share social media posts, order dinner and switch cash. Taking over Twitter was simply step one, he stated.

“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,” Linda Yaccarino, the corporate’s CEO, posted final month.

What occurs if I am unable to shake off the Twitter identify?

We get it! It will take time to regulate colloquially to X. The Twitter identify and its bird-related vocabulary have been used since 2006 and have been embedded in in style tradition.

The change could also be particularly tough since “it is extremely rare for consumers to develop a lexicon around a brand,” stated Mike Proulx, a vp and analysis director at Forrester. “It would be viewed as an advantage in most circumstances because it suggests a deepening of the brand-consumer relationship.”

Now Musk has to create that relationship with the X model, whilst some customers insist they are going to stick with the outdated terminology.

“A lot of people are confused about what to do now that Twitter has been officially rebranded as X, and I thought I’d write up a helpful guide for those of you struggling with change,” one person not too long ago wrote. “You keep calling it Twitter and pretend you do not see it!”