The changes have been done based on feedback directly from the Twitter community, and include:
The refresh, which is generally restorative, streamlines the Twitter timetable by transforming square profile pictures into circles and chopping down the toolbar on the base to four basic symbols in Twitter updates.
This experiment in iconography didn’t last.
A subsequent update brought a new tweet button, and another after that. None of them outshone the quill, and so it remains. But starting today, so much about it looks different.
It’s Twitter’s biggest redesign in years.
Additionally, the Twitter update changes the look of interaction buttons on tweets — even swapping the ‘reply’ arrow for a speech bubble, as Twitter says some newcomers previously confused the arrow for a backspace or delete function.
- A new side navigation menu with profile, additional accounts, settings, and privacy all in one place, for less clutter and easier browsing in Twitter update.
- New typography to make the platform more consistent.
- Rounded profile photos to make it clearer to see what’s being said and who’s saying it.
- New and intuitive icons (like a speech bubble to replace the reply icon) to make it easier to engage with tweets.
- Links to articles and websites now open in Safari’s viewer in the Twitter app so you can easily access accounts on websites you’re already signed into (available on iOS only).
- Tweets now update instantly with reply, retweet, and like counts so you can see conversations as they’re happening – live (not available on twitter.com or Twitter Lite) in the Twitter update.
The visual revamp is the biggest one Twitter’s done in years, with all the updates to become available in the coming days.