Birdify

Restores the classic Twitter branding in the X app (Android).

What it changes

Element	Before	After
Launcher icon	black X	blue bird
App name	"X"	"Twitter"
Splash screen	black + X	blue + bird
Notification icon	X	bird
In-app X logo	X	blue bird
Dark mode	lights out	dim
Wording	Post / Repost	Tweet / Retweet

Requirements

• Android 12+
• Root: KernelSU, Magisk, or APatch
• LSPosed (or a fork such as Vector)

Install

1. Download birdify-ksu.zip from the Releases page.
2. Install it as a module in KernelSU (or Magisk).
3. Reboot.
4. Open LSPosed, enable Birdify, and set its scope to X (com.twitter.android).
5. Force-stop X.

The single zip installs both the resource overlay and the Xposed module.

How it works

Birdify is two components bundled into one module:

• Overlay — a static Runtime Resource Overlay (RRO) placed in system/product/overlay/. It overrides X's resources directly, so the launcher icon, app name, splash, and notification icon change system-wide.
• Xposed module — a LSPosed module installed as a system app. It resolves X's icon resources by name and substitutes the bundled bird, rewrites Post/Repost → Tweet/Retweet in the app's own strings, and repaints the dark surfaces.

Dark mode

X keeps every theme's colours as static longs on a single palette class, which means the dark surfaces have to be swapped by field rather than by value: replacing a colour globally would also catch the pure black that light mode uses for text. DarkTokens.kt therefore names that one obfuscated class, and for each field it compares the value X currently ships against the value it expects before writing, then reads it back. A field that has been renamed is reported and left alone rather than silently repainting the app.

That class is the only place birdify depends on an obfuscated symbol. resync.sh checks it is still present, so a rename surfaces before the module goes quietly inert. Compose packs a Color into a ULong with the ARGB in the high word, so field values are argb shl 32 rather than plain 0xAARRGGBB.

The bird's colour

X draws its logos through a composable that tints whatever vector it is given to match the surrounding surface, so the substituted bird arrives black in light mode and white in dark mode. BirdTint.kt names that composable and sets the tint argument to Twitter blue.

The tint is a defaulted parameter, and the composable's last int is Compose's default mask with one bit per parameter. While bit 3 is set the callee substitutes LocalContentColor and discards the value passed in, so the bit has to be cleared for the colour to take effect. Getting this wrong fails silently: the hook reports success and the bird simply renders in the theme colour.

Overlays spanning renames

X has renamed the resources it uses for the launcher icon and splash screen, so the overlay declares every spelling it has used and lets whichever one exists on the running build take effect. overlay/target-aliases.txt lists the groups, and resync.sh requires at least one member of each group to still exist, so a rename to a genuinely new name still fails the check.

Building

Requires JDK 21 and the Android SDK (platform 35).

./release.sh

This builds both APKs and packages birdify-ksu.zip.

Version support

Birdify resolves everything by resource name at runtime, and no longer hardcodes a resource ID or names an obfuscated class. X renumbers every resource ID on each release, and re-runs R8 with fresh obfuscation, so both of those are invalidated by an update.

X can still break Birdify by renaming or deleting a resource we target. When that happens, resync.sh will tell you exactly what changed:

./resync.sh ~/Downloads/com.twitter.android_12.29.1.apkm

It reports each resource Birdify depends on, flags the ones X no longer has, and suggests replacements. Fixing a breakage should mean editing a name in app/src/main/java/ooo/lew/birdify/AppHook.kt or renaming a file under overlay/src/main/res, never chasing a new ID.

Two rules keep it durable: never hardcode a resource ID, and never reference an obfuscated class. The bird is bundled in app/src/main/res/drawable/bird_blue.xml because X no longer ships a bird vector to borrow. DarkTokens.kt and BirdTint.kt are the two documented exceptions, both described above, and resync.sh checks the symbols they name are still present.

Known gaps

• The dark repaint covers X's three base surface tokens. Derived surfaces follow, since they are computed from those. It does not reach the accent colours, which are already Twitter blue (#1D9BF0).
• ic_vector_x_circle was removed in X 12.29.1, so the circular X badge keeps its original look.
• Tested against X 12.17.0. resync.sh reports exactly what a newer build would need, but the two hooked composables are both renamed there, so the dark theme and the bird's colour would go inert until their new names are found.

While I'll try and stay on top of updates, please open an issue if I haven't updated yet.

License

MIT