Twitter has seen a dramatic decrease in its Top Downloaded chart position across both platforms since the app was renamed to X. Why? The situation presents a fascinating case study at the intersection of brand equity and mobile platform dynamics.

The case is somewhat unprecedented: Twitter built a ubiquitous, household-name brand over the course of nearly 2 decades and then simply abandoned it, leaving it to be exploited by competitors, unopposed, through the mobile platforms’ branded search ads. […]

My hypothesis is that, while the terminally-online are entirely aware of Twitter’s rebrand to X, most consumers aren’t, and their searches for “Twitter” on platform stores surface ads and genuine search results that are in no way redolent of Twitter.

Eric Seufert speaking about Twitter/X on Threads

If you didn’t know that Twitter is now called X, and you search for “Twitter,” the first thing you’ll see is an ad from a rival company like Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram. The new X doesn’t look anything like the old Twitter. It doesn’t have the name “Twitter” anymore, doesn’t mention that it used to be Twitter, and it’s not even blue like before. It just has a weird X symbol and a boring slogan saying “Blaze your glory!”

Right now, Threads is the second most popular free app in the App Store, while X is way down at 51st place. On the Play Store, Threads is at number 6, but X is way, way down at 66. If the person who came up with this big change didn’t own the company, they might have been in big trouble. (Looks like Threads isn’t the one struggling after all.)