X plans to remove any trace left of the app we once called Twitter. Photo by The Verge.

It’s been almost two months since the rebrand of the iconic blue bird app, Twitter, to X, and in doing so, Elon Musk has pretty much tried erasing any traces of the old app, both digitally and physically. From switching out the blue bird logo to a giant X at headquarters, to officially having its name changed on both the Apple and Google app store.

The rebranding started in July of 2023, and at the time, caused a lot of commotion between the users of the app. This is not the first time an app has changed its name, but it is the first one to completely scrape off its origins. For example, SnapChat removed “Chat” from its name, but still left the original name on the app, same goes for Facebook, since they changed the parent company name to “Meta,” but still left the original names of all its apps. So, seeing such a transformation like this is highly unusual. 

According to the new CEO Linda Yaccarino, “this is just the beginning of the transformation of the app,” as they are aiming for the app to become an everything app. Musk has been quite upfront about making an app that can basically do most things, similar to the Chinese app WeChat. WeChat is an app in China that can basically do everything, from chatting online to watching movies to paying bills, like an all-in-one app. But having to take out what really sets the company and brand aside does not make a whole lot of sense, considering X has been used in various concepts and contexts, such as the X-Men, the X Factor, the boy band X Japan and many others, which could lead to a lot of oncoming trademark issues.

Recently, in a conversation with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netayahu, Musk said that a pay system is the only way he could think of to counter bots. Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, but he has said before that his way of getting rid of bots and fake accounts is by having users pay for verification. As of right now, X is still free for everyone to use, but who knows what’s going to happen next. 

I understand trying to make an ‘everything’ app, but scraping off the things that made the app stand out from all the other social media and replacing it with something that is more frequently used and common does not really cut it, but we have to wait and see if this rebranding would really stick around.