Twitter’s redesign makes it look A LOT like Facebook

Starting with a small group of famous users – @Flotus (Michelle Obama), @ZacEfron@ChanningTatum@JohnLegend, etc. – Twitter has started rolling out new web profiles. As outlined in a blog post, the new redesign will be available across the whole site “in the coming weeks”.

Twitter redesign April 2014

First tested in February, the new redesign puts a much bigger emphasis on visual elements allowing users to customise profile headers, use larger profile photos, show off their best tweets and more. 

Here is a summary of the main features:

  • Twitter header – increase in size from 520 x 260px to a whopping 1500 x 500px
  • Profile photo – increase in size from 73 x 73px to 400 x 400px. It’s also been moved to the left-hand side of your profile page
  • Pinned tweet – visible only on the web, Twitter users can now pin one of their tweets to the top of their profile page
  • Best tweets – tweets that have received more engagement will appear slightly larger
  • Filtered tweets – when viewing a user’s profile there are three new options: Tweets, Tweets and Replies and Tweets with Photos/Videos. Also the way Twitter displays the Followers and Following pages has changed – there are now three columns

 

According to the rumours, Twitter is also toying with the idea of rebranding its iconic Retweet button with a Facebook-like Share button.

With wider cover-photos and tweet highlights, the redesign closely resembles updates made by Facebook in 2013. This has angered some Twitter users who feel Twitter has started copying its social media rival.

Do you think Twitter is turning into Facebook?

 

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