Apple makes an exception and Twitter is now X in the iOS App Store

August 1, 2023

3 min read

Elon Musk recently put an end to Larry Bird, which is the name of the iconic bird in Twitter’s logo. Last week, Twitter officially rebranded to X and got a new logo. Although the iOS app was updated days later to match the new identity, the App Store page still mentioned “Twitter” due to one of Apple’s guidelines. But it seems Apple has now made an exception for Musk, as the App Store page has been updated and Twitter is now X there.

Twitter is now X in the iOS App Store

As noted by multiple users, the Twitter page in the App Store now shows the name “X” without any additional words or characters. The change has caught the attention of many developers as App Store Connect requires the name shown in the App Store to have at least two characters. That means there’s no official way to launch an app with a single letter or number as its name.

Interestingly, the App Store Guidelines don’t explicitly mention such a restriction. According to terms 2.3.7 of the App Store Review Guidelines, app names “must be limited to 30 characters,” but there’s nothing about a minimum limit. However, in practice, Apple doesn’t let developers submit an app named with a single character.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the name shown on the iOS Home Screen can be a single character long, but not the marketing name shown in the App Store. Apple ended up making an exception for Elon Musk, probably because of the notability of the platform. But it’s hard to imagine that the company would do the same for any other small developer.

9to5Mac’s Take

The move from Twitter to X has been quite controversial. Not only because of Musk’s questionable decision to kill off one of the world’s most famous brands, but also because it seems to have been a last-minute decision.

A week after the change, X’s app and website still mention Twitter everywhere. The company’s paid subscription is still called Twitter Blue, as is Twitter Spaces. The platform is still slowly replacing terms like “tweet” with “post,” which makes it clear that the rebrand wasn’t carefully planned.

But if you’re still an X user and miss the old icon, there’s still a way to keep it alive on your iPhone and iPad thanks to Shortcuts.