Twitter has just changed its default profile photo. For the last seven years, any Twitter profile created starts out with a default profile of an egg.
According to a recent blog post, the egg was a playful way to reference how eggs hatch into birds that send all the Tweets you see on Twitter!
It also gave reasons for the new change, saying that it wanted something that would encourage people to upload their own photos for more personal expression:
- Last year we refreshed our brand, with a new look and feel highlighting the diversity and expressiveness of the people around the world who make up the Twitter community, in all its color and vibrancy. As part of our work to bring these ideas into the product, we realized it was time to change the default profile photo, to help prompt more self-expression.
- 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! The new default image feels more like an empty state or placeholder, and we hope it encourages people to upload images that express themselves.
- We’ve noticed patterns of behavior with accounts that are created only to harass others – often they don’t take the time to personalize their accounts. This has created an association between the default egg profile photo and negative behavior, which isn’t fair to people who are still new to Twitter and haven’t yet personalized their profile photo.
For the new default profile photo, Twitter decided that it wanted to use people’s existing expectations for default profile photos and how they serve as a temporary placeholder. From this process, it identified a set of traits the new default profile photo should have:
- Generic
- Universal
- Serious
- Unbranded
- Temporary
- Inclusive
It went through many iterations to develop the new profile photo to make sure it displayed those traits.
Wonder what people think about this new profile photo.
