Twitter has started to roll out some visual changes to its timeline across platforms where Twitter is accessible. Twitter notes that these changes to the way the timeline looks are going to be hitting the Android app, but will also be hitting the desktop website, and the iOS version of the Twitter app. As for timing, the new visual changes are beginning today but will carry on through the days and weeks ahead, which means that not everyone will be seeing these new visual changes before today is over.
Not all of the changes that Twitter is rolling out are hitting all platforms. For example, Twitter’s slide out menu that contains all of the different Twitter profiles you have logged into the app as well as the settings and privacy options, and other things like highlights and moments, has been available in the Android version of the app since 2016, but it will be hitting iOS now.
For Android users, one of the first things you’ll probably notice will be the new circular shaped profile icons for people in your timeline. These will be the same shape as your own personal Twitter profile image, though probably just a tad bit larger. While this does keep things streamlined with the personal profile picture shape for users, Twitter says its aim behind this particular change is so that it’s easier to see what’s being said in Tweets and to make it easier to see who is putting out the posts. To assist in making things easier to read, Twitter has also implemented a new, more consistent typography across the application. In addition, headlines for posts will have a “bold” new look to draw more attention to them. Users may also notice that icons for interacting with tweets have a little bit of a lighter color to them, but perhaps the most useful change as it’s more functional than aesthetic, will be the new ability to see interactions on tweets happening live. To accomplish this Twitter made it so that when someone either likes, replies to, or retweets one of your posts, you’ll see the counters for each of those interactions increasing in real-time as they’re added instead of having to refresh the page. This should make it much simpler to engage other users and keep an eye on how your posts are doing. These follow a recent change within the Twitter app that included the update to emoji 5.0.
