How Old Is Twitter? Tracing the Origins of The Platform

Twitter started as a service where you could use an SMS to inform people you know about what you’re up to. It launched when smartphones, as you know it, were a rarity. 

But how old is Twitter, you may wonder. This article sets out to explore this topic, so keep reading to learn more about the origins of Twitter.

How Old Is Twitter: A Brief History

As of November 2024, Twitter is 18 years old. Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass created this platform in March 2006. They launched the network in July 2006.

The company’s co-founders previously worked at Odeo, a podcasting company. Unfortunately, Apple added support for podcasts in 2005. As a result, they needed to come up with an alternative to help Odeo stay afloat.

Twitter was the brainchild of Jack Dorsey, who proposed using text messages to update a small circle of people.

The initial 140-character limit on X was due to the platform’s dependency on SMS. Texts above 160 characters became multiple messages. Twitter’s development team settled on 140 characters. This gave them room to include a person’s username in the text. 

Remember, at this time, Apple had yet to release the first iPhone, which would forever change the smartphone market.

The co-founders started with Twitch as the name for this platform. However, they didn’t think it was a good idea to follow through with this idea. They picked Twitter, which perfectly highlighted what this platform was about.

The team also needed a shortcode to use SMS. Initially, they picked twttr, which fits the five-digit SMS shortcode like a glove. However, it was already in use, so they went with 40404. It was ideal as this was easy to remember.

According to Statista, Twitter has over 600 million monthly active users. As you can see, the platform has exploded in popularity and growth since its beginning in 2006.

How Old Is My Twitter Account? Finding the Age of Your Profile

Twitter, aka X, has been around for over a decade. It may be hard to remember when you created your first profile. So, how do you find out how old your Twitter account is? Here’s a simple guide to help you with this task:

1. Open Twitter in a new tab on a desktop browser or the official app on your smartphone.
2. Left-click the Profile button in the left-sided quick navigation panel on the desktop browser. The mobile app hides this menu. You can bring it out by tapping the profile picture button on the top left. 
3. Select Profile to visit your account page.
4. Look under your Twitter username. You’ll see a calendar icon, the word Joined, and the month and year. This is the month and year you created your Twitter profile.

This method works for private accounts, even if you don’t follow them.

How Old Is Your First Tweet: Step-by-Step Guide To Find It

Do you remember your first post? Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders, was the first user to publish a tweet. He published the post on March 22, 2006, which makes it over 18 years old. 

Elon Musk, Twitter investor and owner of this social media platform, tweeted his first post on June 5, 2010. This means his first tweet is over 14 years old. However, there were several tweets from his profile before 2010. He claimed the posts weren’t from him but from another person pretending to be the billionaire.

So, how do you know the age of your first tweet? Follow this guide to find out:

1. Go to your Twitter Profile page to find the month and year you joined the social media platform.
2. Left-click the Search button with the magnifying glass icon on the side panel if you’re using a desktop browser. On the app, the same button is in the bottom navigation bar.
3. Enter the following search operator in the text field — (from:username) until:yyyy-mm-dd since:yyyy-mm-dd. Replace username with your Twitter handle. For the Until search operator, use the last date of the month you joined. Similarly, for the Since operator, use the first date of the same month.
4. The platform shows a list of tweets during the specified month. Switch to the Latest tab and scroll to the bottom. The post you see at the end is your first tweet.

This way, you can calculate the age of your first post on this social media platform. You can use this guide to look for the first tweet from other users. Replace the username with the person’s Twitter handle and follow the instructions in this guide.

Don’t Let Your Old Tweets Cause Unnecessary Issues: Remove Them With TweetDelete

It’s interesting to know this social media platform’s age. You get to see all the changes the platform experienced as it received new features and updates.

Any Twitter user can go through your profile and find your older tweets. It won’t take long, even if you have thousands of posts. If anything can affect you personally and professionally, it’s only a matter of time before they resurface.

Companies may not hire you if they come across controversial, offensive, or insensitive tweets. For example, you made fun of a company after leaving the organization. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to delete multiple tweets unless you don’t mind removing them one by one.

What should you do in this situation? The easiest way to ensure this doesn’t happen to you is to use TweetDelete. It’s a third-party tool designed to keep your online activities on Twitter private. You don’t need complex search operators to locate your older tweets. TweetDelete comes with a custom filter that locates your posts by date range, tweet type, and keywords.

You can erase multiple posts using the mass-delete tweets, and auto-delete tweets feature. They give you the ability to remove as many tweets as required. What if you want to delete all your posts to try something new? TweetDelete can do this as well with your X Data, aka Twitter Archive file. 

You have the option to delete your likes with the unlike tweets feature. These utilities don’t leave any clues that indicate you deleted your tweets and likes. If anyone follows this “How old is Twitter” article, they won’t find your posts.

Try TweetDelete today and experience why millions of Twitter users use our services!

FAQ on How Old Twitter Is

Is there something else you want to know about Twitter and its age? Check out the following sections covering people’s queries about this topic.