Micro-blogging website Twitter Inc. on Friday changed the default profile photo shown for users who don’t choose to upload one/first time twitter users. The Twitter egg, used since 2010, has been replaced by a human silhouette.
“For the past seven years, everyone who has created an account on Twitter starts out with their default profile photo as an egg. This was a playful way to reference how eggs hatch into birds that send all the Tweets you see on Twitter! But now it’s time for something new – something that encourages people to upload their own photos for more personal expression. So today, we’re introducing a new default profile photo,” the company said in a blog post.
The reason for this change according to Twitter, last year they refreshed their 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,” the company said.
Twitter noticed that some people kept the egg default profile photo because they thought it was fun and cute. However, the Micro-blogging platform says it wants people to use this space to show who they are. The reason for the change is that the Twitter egg is now associated with Twitter trolls, the kinds of users who create accounts simply to harass and bully others. Twitter wants to eliminate that connection.
“This has created an association between the default egg profile photo and negative behaviour, which is not fair to people who are still new to Twitter and have not yet personalised their profile photo,” Twitter wrote in a blog post.[related-posts]
“It was important to explore alternate head shapes. We reviewed many variations of our figure, altering both the head and shoulders to feel more inclusive to all genders,” the company wrote.
