News

Visa Partnership Takes X Closer Toward Musk’s “Everything App” Vision

The real-time payment service will launch in the US later this year, as the platform evolves into a Western equivalent of China’s WeChat.

Published

2 years ago

January 29, 2025

Nour Nasir

visa partnership takes x closer towards musk's everything app vision

X is taking another step toward becoming an “everything app” by partnering with Visa to introduce a real-time payment service known as the X Money Account. The news marks a significant milestone in Elon Musk’s vision for the platform, which has been evolving since his $44 billion acquisition in 2022.

According to X CEO Linda Yaccarin, the new feature will enable users to make peer-to-peer payments via an in-platform digital wallet. The transactions will link to users’ debit cards, allowing them to send money to others or transfer funds to their bank accounts.

Visa confirmed the partnership in its own announcement, stating that X Money will leverage Visa Direct, the company’s instant transfer service. Initially, the feature will be available only in the US, with no details yet on whether it will expand internationally.

Yaccarino described the Visa deal as a “milestone for the Everything App” and hinted at more major announcements for X Money in the near future.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

Musk’s ambition to create a super app has been well-documented. Even before acquiring Twitter, the billionaire frontman of SpaceX and Tesla had spoken about turning it into a Western equivalent of China’s WeChat — a single platform combining messaging, video, streaming, and payments.

However, entering the financial services space is a risky undertaking for X, putting it in direct competition with other tech heavyweights such as Apple, Google, and Meta.

Finally, as X moves forward with its payment service, it remains to be seen how the platform will navigate regulatory challenges and competition. Whether Musk’s long-standing dream of an “everything app” will materialize is still uncertain, but this partnership with Visa signals a determined step in that direction.

News

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

Also Read: Spotify Will Now Tell You If Your Favorite Artist Isn’t Real

The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.