What is Twitter?

Twitter (rebranded as X in 2023) is a microblogging platform where users share short messages called tweets, originally limited to 140 characters but now expanded to 280 for most users. The platform pioneered real-time public conversation at scale, making it a central hub for breaking news, public discourse, and direct interaction between public figures and their audiences.

X maintains Twitter's core functionality while expanding into additional features like longer posts, communities, and enhanced monetization options for creators.

Popular among journalists, tech professionals, marketers, and global leaders, X has over 500 million posts per day are shared on the platform.

A Brief History of Twitter

2006: Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey and others as a microblogging tool, with a 140-character limit per post.

2017: Tweet character limit doubled to 280 characters.

2022: Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, promising significant changes.

2023: The platform was officially rebranded as X, with a new logo and broader app goals.

Despite the name change, many users and marketers still refer to it as Twitter, and the platform retains many of its signature features.

Since the rebrand, X is gradually expanding into an all-in-one platform:

• Longer posts (up to 25,000 characters) for X Premium subscribers
• Video uploads up to 3 hours long
• X Payments (coming soon): A feature Elon Musk is developing to turn X into a payment and finance hub
• More AI integration, tighter moderation, and changes to verification (blue checks)‍

How X works: Key Features and Terminology

The platform operates through several distinctive elements:

• Tweets (Posts): Short public messages that appear in followers' timelines
• Retweets (RT): Sharing someone else's tweet to your followers
• Quote Tweets: Sharing a tweet with your own commentary
• Hashtags: Keywords preceded by # that categorize conversations
• Threads: Connected sequences of tweets that tell a longer story
• Lists: Curated groups of accounts for organized timeline reading

At its core, X is built around short messages known as tweets (now often referred to as "posts"). These messages appear in your followers' timelines and can include text, links, images, videos, polls, or GIFs.

Users interact through replies, retweets (resharing someone else's post), and quote tweets (sharing a post with additional commentary). Hashtags help categorize conversations and surface trending topics, while threads let users connect multiple tweets to tell longer stories. You can also organize accounts using lists for focused content streams.

X offers real-time engagement through X Spaces, which are live audio chat rooms where users can host or join conversations on any topic.

These features create a uniquely dynamic environment where conversations can quickly scale from one-to-one interactions to global discussions.

For brands, creators, and entrepreneurs, X offers a fast-paced channel to announce news or updates, build a community, provide customer service and have the opportunity to go viral with clever or timely posts.