As Elon Musk rebrands Twitter into a company simply known as X, he seems intent on changing the vernacular as well for the site’s fundamental feature.
Asked overnight what tweets would be called in the world of X, Musk responded perhaps the way one would expect given the suddenness of this branding overhaul.
X apparently indeed marks the spot for Musk. It looks like a tweet may soon be called an X, though the supposed new term doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and the branding on Twitter’s — or X’s — platform doesn’t reflect the change just yet. Hover over the button enabling you to compose a new update, and the word “Tweet” still appears.
The company formerly known as Twitter apparently has been quicker to formalize other changes, projecting the X logo in its cafeteria and changing conference room names to “eXposure,” “eXult” and “s3Xy,” according to reports out of its San Francisco headquarters.
Read: Twitter’s new branding as ‘X’ is a smart move, say these marketing pros
It remains to be seen, however, whether the service’s users will be game to adopt the company’s latest lingo. Twitter in its infancy referred to the process of posting updates as “Twittering,” according to Insider, while those who made these posts were labeled “Twitter-ers.” It took a couple of years for the term “tweet” to gain official status.
More terminology based on the iconic messaging function would likely have to change in X’s reality, as some users were quick to point out.
Such complications apparently weren’t lost on Musk, however.
Corporate branding is one thing, but “tweet” is already treated like a verb by millions of people, and breaking that muscle memory won’t be easy for Musk and the X execs. Adding to the corporate intrigue, Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
which unveiled would-be Twitter killer Threads earlier this month, apparently holds the trademark for “X” for “online social networking services… social networking services in the fields of entertainment, gaming and application development.” Meta declined to comment further.
See more: X marks the spot as Elon Musk rebrands Twitter, ditches bird logo
One thing is certain: Musk has quite the fascination with the 24th letter. He named his son X Æ A-12, for instance, and his first company was X.com (which became PayPal) and there’s also SpaceX.
And remember: Tesla originally wanted the Tesla Model 3 to be called the Model E, which would have made the lineup spell out ‘SEXY’, but Ford scotched the plan.
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