Time to verify in on the rebrand at X (previously Twitter), and the way X’s slimmed down engineering staff goes about updating the entire many bird-related references within the app.

Yeah, it’s seemingly not going nice.

In response to a report from Mashable, X’s most up-to-date step on this entrance has been to arrange an computerized alternative variable on iOS, in order that each time a consumer features a reference to “twitter.com” in a submit within the app, the system robotically updates it to “x.com” as an alternative.

So should you submit one thing to X like: “Take a look at my profile at twitter.com/socialmedia2day”, on iOS, it’ll now learn as: “Take a look at my profile at x.com/socialmedia2day”, with the system robotically altering the reference.

Looks as if a simple method to get extra individuals referring to x.com, proper?

Properly, the issue, as a number of customers instantly labored out, is that it pertains to any reference to “x.com”, whatever the surrounding context. So should you have been to submit one thing like “netflitwitter.com”, the brand new system will instantly replace that to “netflix.com” based mostly on this code. The precise URL itself, nonetheless, will preserve referring to the unique area that you just linked to.

In different phrases, the textual content replace will change the show of the URL within the app, but it surely received’t change the hyperlink. So you possibly can principally arrange any web site with “twitter.com” in it, figuring out that it’ll be renamed as “x.com”, then dupe individuals into clicking by means of on it, considering that they’re going to a completely completely different website.

Which is a scammers dream, and can result in many, many deceptive clicks.

In response to Mashable, X has up to date the method to deal with not less than a few of the extra problematic misuses. However they haven’t modified all of them, and the system continues to be updating URL listings to from “twitter.com” to “x.com” as an alternative.

Although why that is even a spotlight is complicated, contemplating that the majority of X’s capabilities nonetheless check with “twitter.com” both approach.

Certainly, taking a look at X’s desktop format, proper now, the entire capabilities check with a“twitter.com” hyperlink:

Even X’s Grok chatbot is presently hosted at “ So I’m unsure that altering the identify of the URL in posts goes to make any main distinction both approach.

After all, mentioning the identify in posts is extra up entrance, and extra seen than these hyperlinks, which aren’t displayed prominently on display screen.

However in X’s help documentation they’re, and there are many “Twitter” references there:

X additionally contains (previously Twitter) in most of its electronic mail notifications as effectively, with a purpose to cowl all bases, whereas most exterior references to “x.com” even have to incorporate “previously Twitter” too, in any other case Google’s crawlerbots will get suspicious concerning the validity of your hyperlinks.

So, on steadiness, the re-brand to X continues to be a piece in progress, and it does appear to be this was an ill-timed re-naming effort, contemplating that the corporate had additionally cut 80% of its staff simply earlier than the introduced change, leaving it with far fewer assets to assign to the broader re-naming job.

However Elon Musk has been dreaming of “x.com” for 20 years, and he was decided to start out afresh with a brand new identification for his social media experiment. And it does make sense to have some separation from its outdated moniker, within the pre-Musk period. However the broader renaming of its many references goes to take time, and lots of customers are nonetheless going to check with it as Twitter, in all probability eternally.

So perhaps not an ideal enterprise choice. However then once more, Elon appears to take pleasure in lumping himself with extremely tough duties, and he’s undoubtedly not taking the straightforward approach out, on just about any entrance, on the app.

In that sense, perhaps the half-baked re-brand aligns with the broader Elon Musk expertise.