Definition:
Twitter (now social network X) is a free social messaging tool that allows users to stay connected through short text messages of up to 140 characters in length. The social network Twitter is based on answering the question “What are you doing?”. Thoughts, observations, and comings and goings during the day are then posted.
The update of these messages is published on the user’s Twitter profile page through SMS text messages, the Twitter website, instant messaging, RSS, email or through other applications and social sites, such as Facebook.
Registered users on Twitter can read and post tweets, but those who are not registered can only read them.
Origin and evolution of X – Twitter
X has undergone significant evolution since its launch in 2006. Below are some of the most important milestones in the platform’s history:
- 2006: Launch of Twitter (now X) by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Noah Glass. The platform is initially conceived as a text messaging service for brief updates.
- 2007: Twitter becomes a phenomenon during the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference, where its use skyrockets. Hashtags are introduced to help group conversations.
- 2009: The “retweet” function is launched, allowing users to share the tweets of others with their followers, increasing the virality of the content.
- 2010: Twitter reaches 50 million tweets sent per day. In addition, the “favorites” option is introduced, allowing users to save tweets they like.
- 2013: Twitter becomes a public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol “TWTR”. In this year, “Vines”, a short video format, are also introduced.
- 2015: 140-character limits are removed for tweets that include photos, links and mentions, allowing users to communicate more effectively.
- 2016: Twitter launches the live streaming feature, allowing users to broadcast videos in real time to their followers. Moments, a way to curate and share stories on the platform, are also introduced.
- 2017: The platform extends the character limit of tweets to 280, allowing users to express themselves more broadly.
- 2021: Twitter introduces new subscription features, such as “Super Follows,” which allows content creators to monetize their content through subscriptions.
- 2022: Twitter introduces “Twitter Spaces,” a feature that allows users to participate in live audio conversations, similar to Clubhouse.
- 2023: The platform changes its name to X and rebrands, under the leadership of Elon Musk, who seeks to transform the social network into a “superapp” that combines messaging, payments and social networking.
X logo – Twitter
The original Twitter icon is easily identifiable internationally by its blue bird logo, which is known as “Larry the Bird,” after the basketball player Larry Bird. This logo has evolved over the years, simplifying its design every time it was moved to a new version. This bird is a mountain tile, native to western North America.
Regarding the new X typeface, it corresponds to is exactly the same as the capital letter “X” of the font “Special Alphabets 4″, from the “Special Alphabets” typeface family, from Monotype.
Operation of X – Twitter
Users can subscribe to other users’ tweets, which is known as “follow” and such subscribers are known as “followers” or “tweeters”. Tweets can be forwarded once read, which is known as “retweeting” and can also indicate that they like the tweet through a “like”.
Users can also group messages by topic by using hashtags, which are words or phrases preceded by the “#” sign. Similarly, the ” @ ” sign followed by a username is used to mention or respond to other users. All this always in 140 characters.
There is also the concept of “trending topic”, a word, phrase or topic that is mentioned at a higher rate than others and becomes popular with users over a period of time.