Twitter receives Apple's special authorization to change its name to 'X' in iOS App Store

Apple generally does not permit developers to name their apps with a single character; however, Twitter - recently rebranded as X - is now listed as X in the iOS App Store, implying that the app received special authorization from Apple to allow a single-character moniker.

The rebranding was somewhat hampered by Apple App Store regulation prohibiting single-character app names – the real programme name on iPhones and iPads already showed up as X. One possible exception is that Apple wishes to bury the hatchet with X owner Elon Musk.

Last year, Twitter's then-CEO accused Apple of threatening to remove the Twitter app from its app store. Musk later explained his conversation with Apple CEO Tim Cook as a simple "misunderstanding."

Apple typically doesn’t allow developers to name their apps as a single character; but Twitter, which is rebranding as X, is now listed as X in the iOS App Store, suggesting the app got special treatment from Apple to allow a single-character name.

The renaming was briefly hindered by a rule forbidding single-character app names within the App Store — the actual app name on iPhones and iPads already showed up as X. The exception could be that Apple wants to bury the hatchet with X owner Elon Musk.

Late last year, the then-CEO of Twitter accused Apple of threatening to remove the Twitter app from the store. After meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk later said it was a simple “misunderstanding.”

Alongside the X rebranding, the company also updated its tagline in the store, from “it’s what’s happening” to “blaze your glory!” — a phrase that Musk tweeted (er, sorry, posted) this morning.

Twitter has been clumsily transitioning to X for about the last week. The social network’s new “interim” logo, which was tweeted at Musk by a Twitter user and looks suspiciously like a Unicode symbol, was added to the site after Musk tweeted about it several times the day before.

The symbol feels a little more permanent now as the company has jammed an obnoxious brightly-lit version of it on top of its headquarters in San Francisco. The former official account of Twitter on the network also switched to simply @X after the handle was taken from a user who’d had it since 2007.

But the company still has some ground to cover before the transition is complete. The Twitter.com domain name still doesn’t redirect to X.com (it’s currently the other way around), Twitter Blue is still Twitter Blue, and the company’s support page is still lousy with references to “Twitter.”