Twitter rolled out it new look for users letting them opt for a bigger profile picture on their homepage and highlight their best tweets, among other features. The change was launched in an attempt to combat slowing user growth. Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief executive promised to make “a better Twitter.”
There is nothing unusual about the initial setup of the new Twitter. If you haven’t already set up your Twitter account, you build your profile screen by choosing a username, add your profile picture and a description of yourself. You can skip this step and leave your picture and description blank (not recommended). In the old Twitter, the blank pictures were represented as eggs. Now if you leave it blank, the default avatar is a silhouette which is very similar to Facebook’s no-photo avatar.
Also like Facebook, users can now put a large horizontal picture at the top of their page, in addition to the thumbnail shot. The photo can be a max of 1500 pixels wide and Twitter lets you scale and move it around to position it correctly. Many Twitter users create profile pics and backgrounds to work together and they will have to redo them for the new profile because the positioning has changed.
Twitter still allows users to upload their own background or theme and provides a collection of preset themes. Backgrounds built for the old profiles may not work with the new design, though.
Some other new features of the Twitter Profile are:
- Pinned Tweets. Pin your favorite tweet to the top of your page. This way your followers can learn more about you quickly.
- Best Tweets. Your most popular tweets will appear in larger type than the rest so your best content is easy to find.
- Filtered Tweets. Choose which timeline to see when looking at other profiles: tweets, tweets with photos/videos or tweets with replies
In order to get the new Twitter look, you simply have to visit your Twitter page and opt in when asked. If you don’t automatically get the option, you can visit Twitter and request it be turned on. Once you are included in the new look, you will can upload a larger image from your desktop or choose from one of Twitter’s pictures.
Similar to Facebook, identifiers such as links, descriptions, and handles are all on the left side of the screen. They stand out because there is nothing beneath them. The menu of Tweets, Following, Followers, Favorites and Lists are all gone. The “Who to Follow” and “Trends” portions were moved to the lower right side. Some feel this new design is not helpful since it might be easy to miss the boxes.