Twitter users, say your final goodbyes to the iconic bird logo!
Elon Musk has announced that the feathery icon users have grown accustomed to is on its way out — and his preferred letter, “X,” is on the way in.
The Space X CEO, 52, who purchased the company for $44 billion in October, teased a variety of changes to the social media platform on Saturday, including the departure of the bird, who has become synonymous with Twitter over its decade as the company’s logo.
Musk began by publicly playing with the concept of changing the platform’s default color from its current blue to black, a change he asked users about using Twitter’s poll feature.
He also replied to the poll with a YouTube link to Lana Del Rey’s song “Off To The Races” — seemingly a hint that these adjustments are only the first of many sweeping changes. The Twitter owner also shared a photo of a black iteration of the current app logo and wrote, “Like this but X.”
“To embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique,” he added of the design concept.
And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
He then tweeted that “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
“If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make [it] go live worldwide tomorrow,” he added.
Though the “X” takeover has not yet begun, Musk did share a fanmade video — posted in response to his request for a “good enough X logo” — that shows the current Twitter logo becoming an “X” in a flashy, dramatic transition. He pinned the video to his account.
In a Twitter Spaces audio chat this weekend, Musk was asked if the Twitter logo will change, which he confirmed, adding that “it should have been done a long time ago,” per Reuters.
On Sunday morning, Musk joked about his obvious affinity for the letter “X,” tweeting, “Not sure what subtle clues gave it [away], but I like the letter X,” alongside a photo of himself making an “X” with his arms in front of a wall covered in the letter.
Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X pic.twitter.com/nwB2tEfLr8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
The company’s current logo, simply called the Twitter Bird, has gone through a metamorphosis since the Twitter’s 2006 launch, as detailed in The New York Times’ article titled “Who Made That Twitter Bird?”
Originally named “Larry the Bird” (after the NBA legend), the bluebird’s importance was underscored by Twitter’s former creative director, Doug Bowman, when he implemented the current iteration in 2012.
“Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter,” Bowman said during the redesign’s introduction, per the NYT, adding that it is “the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility.”
Musk’s announcement about the “gradual” transition to a new “X” logo and brand identity comes after Twitter was reported earlier this month to be threatening to take legal action against Meta after the Facebook and Instagram parent company launched Threads, a new text-based social media network.
Musk-owned Twitter accused Meta of poaching Twitter employees for what it calls a “copycat” app, according to a cease-and-desist letter obtained by media site Semafor.
In the letter, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Twitter, accused Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property,” according to the outlet, which first reported on the letter. CNN also confirmed the letter’s authenticity.
— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) July 6, 2023
When reached for comment, Meta referred PEOPLE to Meta spokesperson Andy Stone’s response on Threads. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” Stone wrote.
In its letter, Twitter claimed Meta hired “dozens” of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.” Twitter alleges the employees have “ongoing obligations” to Twitter and “improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices.” Meta “deliberately” assigned these employees to develop Threads “with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate” the development of Threads, the letter claims.
According to Twitter, Meta allegedly violated both state and federal laws as well as the suspected employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter. The company reportedly “intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights.”
Musk’s company claims it “reserves all rights” to seek “civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”
“Competition is fine, cheating is not,” Musk, 52, tweeted after reports of the letter were published. Spiro did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Meta, which is also the parent company of WhatsApp, launched Threads on July 2, months after rumors that the company was developing the platform. Threads users can post messages with up to 500 characters and include photos and videos up to five minutes long.
Following the launch of the new platform, which Zuckerberg, 39, called “an open and friendly public space for conversation,” the Meta CEO shared his first tweet since 2012 — a meme of two identically dressed Spider-Man characters pointing at each other.
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