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2006 - 2023
Twitter (the bird era)
“Twitter is over capacity.”
- Birth year
- 2006
- Shutdown year
- 2023
- Lifespan
- 17 years
- Peak era
- 2009-2016
- Company
- Twitter, Inc.
- Category
- Social Networks
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On Video
"Twitter in Plain English", the 2008 explainer
Plays from YouTube when you press play. Views, length and date from YouTube, October 2026.
About This Video
- From:
- Common Craft Explainer Videos
- Added:
- March 5, 2008
- Length:
- 2:25
What Was It?
Twitter started in 2006 as a way to post short status updates, first under the name twttr, with each message limited to 140 characters. That constraint shaped a new kind of writing: compressed jokes, live commentary, breaking news and arguments squeezed into a sentence.
The little blue bird became one of the most recognisable logos in the world, and words like tweet, retweet and hashtag entered everyday language. During its busiest early years, the site was famous for crashing under its own popularity and showing an illustration of a whale being lifted by birds.
In July 2023 the service was renamed X and the bird logo was retired. The platform continues under the new name, but Twitter, with its bird and its tweets, ended there.
Things You Probably Forgot
- The Fail Whale
- Counting down to exactly 140 characters
- "What are you doing?" in the posting box
- Gold stars before they turned into hearts
- Live-tweeting television together
The Story
- 2006 Twitter launched in July after starting life as twttr.
- 2009 The posting prompt changed from "What are you doing?" to "What's happening?"
- 2012 More than 100 million users were posting 340 million tweets a day.
- 2017 The character limit doubled from 140 to 280.
- 2023 Twitter was renamed X and the bird logo was retired.
How It Died
In July 2023 the platform was rebranded as X, retiring the Twitter name and bird logo. The service itself continues under the new brand.
What Replaced It?
Memories
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