Twitter Introduces New, “Gender-Balanced” Default Profile Photo

It’s time to say goodbye to the Twitter egg, the default profile photo that has been around for seven years now. Twitter has announced today that it is changing the egg, which was a playful way to reference how eggs hatch into birds that send all the Tweets you see on Twitter, into a more “gender-balanced” one.

In a blog post announcing the change, Twitter brings up several arguments to underpin its decision:

(1) Last year it refreshed its brand with a new look and feel focusing on the diversity and expressiveness of the people across the globe who have signed up for Twitter.

(2) While some have kept the default egg pic because they were fun and cute, Twitter really wants you to use its service to “show who you are!” So, with this change Twitter also hopes you will upload images to express yourself.

(3) Unfortunately, the egg photo created an association with negative behaviour, which isn’t fair to new Twitter users who haven’t yet taken the time to personalise their accounts.

After analysing various images and icons, the Twitter designer team has come up with this. (See below)

How do you like it? Of course, keep in mind that Twitter’s choice for this picture is to encourage more people to express themselves on its platform.