This is mostly interesting in consideration of the way in which Elon Musk has eroded the brand value of Twitter by re-naming it X, in line with his long-standing “everything app” vision.
But even so, it could be a relevant shift.
According to reports, screenshots of X posts on iOS will soon come with new “X.com” watermarks, as a means to expand the X brand.
As you can see in this example, posted by Aaron Perris of MacRumors, X is working on updated X branding for screenshots of posts taken on the iOS app.
Which could be valuable, because a heap of X posts are re-posted on other apps, and gain significant traction, without any of that traffic going back to X itself.
As such, this may be an important brand element, expanding on the branding in post embeds to help raise awareness of X as the source of various viral updates.
Though as noted, it is also interesting considering that many people would still associate this format with Twitter, which had such a strong and recognizable brand that it probably didn’t need to explore expanded branding pushes like this.
But, then again, Twitter did also seek to combat this type of sharing with its own solutions.
Back in 2022, just before Elon Musk took over the app, Twitter shared that it had been experimenting with a new prompt that would pop up whenever a user would go to screenshot a tweet, asking them to either share in the app, or share a link to the tweet instead.
Twitter had long held that tweets actually gained far more reach and traction than its raw metrics would suggest, with this chart, which Twitter published in 2015, showing that it actually reached double its registered audience, based on logged-out usage.
The same would probably hold true, to at least some degree now, and as such, branding on re-shared images of posts could be a valuable awareness opportunity.
Though again, I feel like the ubiquity of the Twitter bird was a far more valuable driver on this front either way. But if Elon really wants to make X happen, then this is probably an important element.
There’s no word on an actual release plan for this update, but X looks to be in the late stages of development for its screenshot branding option.
