Twitter has changed its iconic default profile photo icon from egg to a new image that “feels like an empty state or placeholder” and ...
Twitter has changed its iconic default profile photo icon from egg to a new image that “feels like an empty state or placeholder” and is more gender-balanced. Previously users could change the background of the egg to seven different colors, while the new profile photo will have ‘generic’ gray color as the only option.
“We noticed that some people kept the egg default profile photo because they thought it was fun and cute, but we want people to use this space to show us who they are!” Twitter Design team said in a blog post.
Users who often create accounts just to troll and harass other people on Twitter do not take the time to personalize their accounts and go with “Twitter egg”. Twitter wants to change that by giving all its users, including the new ones an opportunity to personalize their profile photo.
Twitter’s new profile photo was chosen after the company went through all of Twitter’s default profile photos throughout the years. “We originally chose the egg, with a different colored background for each new account, because we wanted something that was playful, fun, and unique,” reads the blog post.
However, the idea with the new profile photo is to use people’s existing expectations for default profile photos and how they serve as a temporary placeholder.
“We reviewed many variations of our figure, altering both the head and shoulders to feel more inclusive to all genders,” the company said in the blog post. Twitter calls its new default profile photo generic, universal, serious, unbranded, temporary and inclusive.
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