Quiz answers and sources

All 40 questions from the Twitter history quiz, with the right answer, a short explanation and where we checked it. Spoilers, obviously.

Dates follow the sources listed. Where sources disagree by a day, we use the month or year instead. If you think an answer is wrong, tell us.

In what year did Twitter launch to the public?

Answer 2006

The public version launched on July 15, 2006, a few months after the first internal post in March 2006.

Source: History of Twitter (Wikipedia)
What was the project's early code name?

Answer twttr

The project began as "twttr", spelled without vowels in the style of the time. The first post read "just setting up my twttr".

Source: History of Twitter (Wikipedia)
Who sent the first post, "just setting up my twttr", in March 2006?

Answer Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey posted it in March 2006 while the service was still an internal project.

Source: History of Twitter (Wikipedia)
Twitter grew out of which company?

Answer Odeo, a podcasting startup

Twitter started as a side project inside Odeo, a podcasting company. Dorsey, Stone and Williams later formed Obvious Corporation, which acquired Odeo in October 2006.

Source: History of Twitter (Wikipedia)
Which of these people was NOT one of Twitter's four cofounders?

Answer Kevin Systrom

The cofounders are usually listed as Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Kevin Systrom cofounded Instagram.

Source: Twitter (Wikipedia)
Which 2007 event is remembered as Twitter's breakout moment?

Answer SXSW Interactive in Austin

Usage jumped during SXSW Interactive in March 2007, from about 20,000 to 60,000 posts a day.

Source: History of Twitter (Wikipedia)
Who suggested using the # symbol to group posts, in August 2007?

Answer Chris Messina

Chris Messina proposed it on August 23, 2007, asking how people felt about using # for groups, as in #barcamp.

Source: Hashtag (Wikipedia)
When did Twitter start turning hashtags into clickable search links?

Answer 2009

Beginning July 2, 2009, Twitter hyperlinked hashtags to search results for that tag.

Source: Hashtag (Wikipedia)
Why was the original post limit 140 characters?

Answer Posts were sent by SMS, which allows 160 characters, leaving room for the username

Biz Stone explained that Twitter was built to work over SMS, which has a 160-character limit, and they reserved room for the author's name.

Source: Twitter Turns Five (NPR, 2011)
In which year did the limit rise from 140 to 280 characters for most languages?

Answer 2017

After a test that began in September 2017, Twitter rolled out 280 characters to most languages in November 2017.

Source: Twitter expands 280-character limit to most languages (CNBC, Nov 7, 2017)
Which languages kept the 140-character limit after the 2017 change?

Answer Chinese, Japanese and Korean

Twitter left Chinese, Japanese and Korean at 140 because those scripts already fit more meaning into each character.

Source: Twitter expands 280-character limit to most languages (CNBC, Nov 7, 2017)
Before the 280 change, about what share of English posts hit the 140 limit, according to Twitter?

Answer 9%

Twitter said 9% of English-language posts hit 140 characters. After the change, only 1% hit the new limit.

Source: Twitter expands 280-character limit to most languages (CNBC, Nov 7, 2017)
In November 2015 the star "favorite" button was replaced by what?

Answer A heart, renamed "like"

On November 3, 2015, Twitter swapped the star for a heart and renamed favorites to likes.

Source: Twitter is replacing the favorite star with a heart (The Next Web, Nov 3, 2015)
When did Twitter begin rolling out its built-in retweet button?

Answer November 2009

Users had been retweeting by hand with "RT @name". Twitter started rolling out an official retweet feature in November 2009.

Source: Twitter rolling out its own retweet button (VatorNews, Nov 5, 2009)
Twitter's Verified Accounts program began in which year?

Answer 2009

Twitter launched verified accounts in June 2009 to help people tell real notable accounts from impostors and parodies.

Source: Twitter verification (Wikipedia)
Since the December 2022 relaunch of Twitter Blue, what does a gold checkmark mark?

Answer Verified organizations

Gold checks mark Verified Organizations and gray checks mark government accounts. Both arrived with the December 12, 2022 relaunch.

Source: Twitter verification (Wikipedia)
When did removal of "legacy" blue checkmarks actually begin?

Answer April 2023

Twitter announced the wind-down for April 1, 2023. Removal actually started on April 20, 2023.

Source: Twitter verification (Wikipedia)
On which exchange did Twitter go public in November 2013?

Answer New York Stock Exchange

Twitter listed on the NYSE on November 7, 2013, under the ticker TWTR, and was delisted in November 2022 after the Musk acquisition.

Source: Twitter, Inc. (Wikipedia)
Twitter bought Vine in 2012. How long could a Vine video be?

Answer 6 seconds

Vine clips were looping videos of up to six seconds. Twitter acquired the app in October 2012 and shut it down in January 2017.

Source: Vine (Wikipedia)
What was Periscope, which Twitter acquired in 2015?

Answer A live video streaming app

Periscope was a live-streaming app. Twitter announced the acquisition in March 2015 and discontinued the service on March 31, 2021.

Source: Twitter, Inc. (Wikipedia)
Who succeeded Jack Dorsey as CEO when he stepped down in November 2021?

Answer Parag Agrawal

Dorsey stepped down on November 29, 2021, and CTO Parag Agrawal became CEO.

Source: Twitter, Inc. (Wikipedia)
Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter closed in October 2022 for about how much?

Answer $44 billion

The deal closed on October 27, 2022, at $54.20 a share, about $44 billion in total.

Source: Twitter, Inc. (Wikipedia)
In which year was Twitter rebranded as X?

Answer 2023

The rebrand to X happened in July 2023, replacing the bird logo.

Source: History of Twitter (Wikipedia)
When did the service's main domain change from twitter.com to x.com?

Answer May 2024

The core domain switched to x.com on May 17, 2024, almost a year after the rebrand.

Source: History of Twitter (Wikipedia)
The Twitter bird mascot was nicknamed after which athlete?

Answer Larry Bird

The bird was known as Larry, after the basketball player Larry Bird.

Source: Twitter (Wikipedia)
What did the famous "Fail Whale" error image show?

Answer Birds lifting a whale

The over-capacity error page showed small orange birds hoisting a whale. It became a symbol of Twitter's frequent outages in its early years.

Source: Twitter (Wikipedia)
What were Fleets?

Answer Posts that disappeared after 24 hours

Fleets were disappearing posts, similar to stories on other apps. They launched in November 2020 and were removed in August 2021.

Source: Twitter (Wikipedia)
Community Notes started in 2021 under what name?

Answer Birdwatch

The crowd-sourced notes program launched as Birdwatch in January 2021 and was renamed Community Notes in November 2022.

Source: Community Notes (Wikipedia)
Twitter Blue launched in June 2021 in which first two countries?

Answer Canada and Australia

Twitter Blue launched first in Canada and Australia on June 3, 2021. Its headline feature was Undo Tweet.

Source: Twitter Blue subscription launches (CNN, June 3, 2021)
Who got the edit button first when it rolled out in October 2022?

Answer Twitter Blue subscribers

Editing started with paying Twitter Blue subscribers, beginning in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Source: Twitter's edit button rolls out to Blue subscribers (TechCrunch, Oct 3, 2022)
When did view counts start appearing on ordinary posts?

Answer December 2022

Twitter began showing view counts under posts in December 2022. Before that, impression counts were mostly visible only to the author in analytics.

Source: Twitter now shows how many people view your tweets (TechCrunch, Dec 22, 2022)
In 2015 the limit for direct messages went from 140 characters to what?

Answer 10,000

Twitter raised the DM limit to 10,000 characters in August 2015, while public posts stayed at 140.

Source: Twitter drops 140-character limit from direct messages (BetaNews, Aug 12, 2015)
When Spaces opened beyond testers in May 2021, how many followers did you need to host one?

Answer 600

Twitter opened Spaces hosting to any account with at least 600 followers on May 3, 2021.

Source: Twitter expands Spaces to anyone with 600+ followers (TechCrunch, May 3, 2021)
How many characters does a link count as in a post, however long it is?

Answer 23

Every link is wrapped by X's t.co shortener and counts as 23 characters.

Source: Counting characters (X developer documentation)
How many characters does a single emoji count as on X?

Answer 2

X counts every emoji as 2, including skin tones and combined sequences joined with zero-width joiners.

Source: Counting characters (X developer documentation)
Do photos and videos attached in X's own apps count toward the character limit?

Answer No, they count as 0

Media attached through official clients count as zero characters. Twitter stopped counting media against the limit in 2016.

Source: Counting characters (X developer documentation); Twitter (Wikipedia)
In July 2018 Twitter removed which accounts from follower counts?

Answer Locked accounts suspected of spam or takeover

Twitter removed locked accounts, ones it had frozen over suspicious activity whose owners never confirmed control. Most users saw a drop of four followers or fewer.

Source: Twitter to purge locked accounts from follower metrics (TechCrunch, July 11, 2018)
Whose 2014 Oscars group selfie became the most retweeted photo up to that time?

Answer Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres posted the selfie during the March 2014 Oscars broadcast. It passed Barack Obama's 2012 election-night photo as the most retweeted.

Source: Ellen's Oscar selfie becomes most retweeted photo ever (PetaPixel, Mar 3, 2014)
Which company acquired X in March 2025?

Answer xAI

Elon Musk's AI company xAI acquired X in an all-stock deal in March 2025.

Source: Twitter (Wikipedia)
Who designed the simplified bird logo introduced in 2012?

Answer Douglas Bowman

Douglas Bowman's simplified bird was introduced in 2012 and used until the July 2023 rebrand.

Source: Twitter (Wikipedia)

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