Found an unfamiliar app called X installed on your smartphone that you have no memory of downloading? Don’t worry, nobody has hacked into your phone. Instead, this is simply a rebrand for the popular social media app Twitter.
As of now, X is essentially the same app as Twitter, just with a new name and logo. This means the iconic blue bird mascot of Twitter has gone the way of the dodo, and is no more.
However, reports suggest that new owner Elon Musk has grand plans for X, and could potentially make the app unrecognisable compared to its Twitter days. So what is this new X app and how will it differ to Twitter? Here’s everything we know so far.
What is X?
At the time of writing, X is just a different guise for the social media app Twitter. Besides from the new logo, X looks exactly the same as Twitter, with a vertical timeline featuring posts from other users. It’s one the biggest social platforms for news outlets, politicians, celebrities and more.
X could look very different in the coming months though. Elon Musk, the owner of X, has announced plans to turn the social media platform into “the everything app”.
Apple Music
Apple Music gives you access to over 100 million songs and 30,000 playlists, ad-free. Listen online or off, across all your devices, and hear sound all around in Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking. You can now try 1 month for free!
- Apple
- Get 1 month free
- £10.99 p/m
In the coming months, Musk says that he will add “comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world” to the X app.
It seems that Musk wants to emulate WeChat, which is a successful super-app in China that offers multiple functions beyond social media, including text messaging, voice messaging, video conferencing, gaming, location sharing, photo and video sharing and mobile payments.
While super-apps are popular in Asia, they are yet to be adopted in the US and Europe. Instead, multiple different applications cover these various functions. Musk hopes to change that, by making X into the first widely used super-app in the Western world.
X is said to already have close to 400 million users, although these have been amassed during the time the app was branded as Twitter. It remains to be seen whether the majority of those users will stick around once Musk starts to implement the changes to complete X’s transition to a super-app.
You might like…
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
