Recently, Twitter introduced its new font change that serves an important purpose. Unlike a few other updates to the social media app interface, this one helps weed out impersonations. At least that is Twitter’s intention for this new feature rolling out to some users.
Only users of the Twitter web platform have access to this feature on their accounts. To get familiar with the new fonts, users will need to open their accounts on the web. Some users of Twitter are already getting familiar with the new fonts.
At the moment, this feature is rather subtle and will require that users pay close attention to accounts on the web platform. Twitter might work on making this feature more noticeable to users. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the details of the new fonts.
Usernames made to stand out with the font change on the Twitter web app
To fight impersonation on Twitter, the platform is testing new fonts on the web. These fonts are used in the @ username of any account to help it stand out from the crowd. Certain characters (numbers and letters) now have some distinct features.
A popular Twitter user and software engineer, Molly White, took to her page to share some information on the new fonts. The letter “L” on her @ username now has a short tail ending, and the “0” has a slash across it. These attributes were not there a few days ago and are a product of the new Twitter font change.
People searching Twitter for a user like Molly can now pay attention to the @ username to be sure it is her authentic account. All impostor accounts with a similar @ username will not get the new fonts. This will help the original account to stand out from all other impostor accounts.
For now, it is safe to say that this new feature is currently under testing. Once available for use, it will roll out to the Android and iOS Twitter apps. Also, there will be an announcement of this new feature from Elon Musk or Twitter’s official handle.
Changing fonts on Twitter @ usernames might not eradicate impostors, but it will make them more identifiable. These new fonts might make their way to the Twitter mobile apps in due time. For now, users have to wait patiently and hope that this is not one of Twitter’s experiments that end up in the dustbin.