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

Yeah, it’s seemingly not going nice.

In keeping with 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 every time a consumer features a reference to “twitter.com” in a publish within the app, the system robotically updates it to “x.com” as a substitute.

So in case you publish one thing to X like: “Try my profile at twitter.com/socialmedia2day”, on iOS, it’ll now learn as: “Try my profile at x.com/socialmedia2day”, with the system robotically altering the reference.

Looks as if a simple solution to get extra folks referring to x.com, proper?

Nicely, 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 in case you have been to publish one thing like “netflitwitter.com”, the brand new system will instantly replace that to “netflix.com” primarily based on this code. The precise URL itself, nonetheless, will hold 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, however it received’t change the hyperlink. So you possibly can principally arrange any web site with “twitter.com” in it, realizing that it’ll be renamed as “x.com”, then dupe folks into clicking by means of on it, pondering that they’re going to a completely completely different web site.

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

In keeping with Mashable, X has up to date the method to handle at the very least a number 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 a substitute.

Although why that is even a spotlight is complicated, contemplating that the majority of X’s features nonetheless seek advice from “twitter.com” both manner.

Certainly, taking a look at X’s desktop format, proper now, all the features seek advice from a“twitter.com” hyperlink:

Even X’s Grok chatbot is presently hosted at “https://twitter.com/i/grok”. So I’m undecided that altering the identify of the URL in posts goes to make any main distinction both manner.

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

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

X additionally contains (previously Twitter) in most of its e-mail notifications as nicely, with the intention 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 in regards to the validity of your hyperlinks.

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

However Elon Musk has been dreaming of “x.com” for 20 years, and he was decided to begin afresh with a brand new identification for his social media experiment. And it does make sense to have some separation from its previous 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 seek advice from it as Twitter, most likely ceaselessly.

So perhaps not an amazing enterprise determination. However then once more, Elon appears to take satisfaction in lumping himself with extremely tough duties, and he’s positively not taking the simple manner 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.