X
| |
| X | |
| Developer | X Corp. |
|---|---|
| Publisher | X Corp. |
| Platforms | Android, iOS, Roku, Xbox One |
| Released | March 21, 2006 |
| Added to Museum |
Android: June 10, 2018 |
X, formerly known as Twitter, is a social media network.
First versions at Odeo
While an undergraduate, Jack Dorsey came up with an idea to use SMS messages to communicate in a small group.
The original codename for the product was twtter. The name was conceived by Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr as well as the five-character length of American SMS short codes.
The first prototype was developed on March 21, 2006 by Jack Dorsey and an independent contractor named Florian Weber. It was used as an internal messaging service by employees at the podcasting company Odeo.
The full version of Twitter was released to the public on July 15, 2006.
Acquisition by Obvious Corporation
Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass founded Obvious Corporation in October 2006. It acquired Odeo as well as its assets including Twitter. Afterward, Evan Williams fired Noah Glass. Glass was not credited for his part in the early history of Twitter until he spoke out in 2011.
Twitter, Inc.
Obvious Corporation became Twitter, Inc. in April 2007. The rights to Odeo were transferred to Sonic Mountain.
Blue checkmarks
Blue checkmarks were a system on Twitter for verified accounts of celebrities, organizations, and politicians.
Twitter Blue is a subscription service that was launched in June 2021 for $2.99 USD a month. It was originally a subscription service that allowed users to undo tweets before they were sent, group together saved tweets, view replied tweets more quickly, use several different colored themes, and get access to dedicated customer service. The price was raised to $4.99 in July 2022 and subscribers gained the ability to edit tweets within a longer timeframe.
Acquisition by Elon Musk
Twitter, Inc. was purchased by Elon Musk on October 27, 2022. Musk fired the top three executives immediately after the purchase and fired approximately half of the company's nearly 7,500 employees the next week.
On November 9, 2022, Musk launched a reorganized Twitter Blue on iOS, giving a checkmark to anyone who paid $8 USD for the subscription. Immediately after the service went live, accounts began abusing the system by impersonating companies and celebrities.
Replacement of the bird logo and rebranding to X
X Corp. was founded on March 9, 2023, and Twitter Inc. was merged into it. Musk's X.com domain was redirected to Twitter on July 23, 2023. The domain was originally started in March 1999 as an online bank before merging with Confinity to form Paypal.
Twitter's bird logo was replaced with an X on July 23, 2023. On July 26, 2023, the Android application was changed from Twitter to X on the Google Play Store.
