Twitter’s default profile picture for new users has always been the ‘egg’. This has been the case ever since the site was launched and is one of the things most people use to tell if a user is new to the site. Those who have been on the site for a while tend to change this but new users are always stuck with it until they figure out how to change it.
Well, the egg is now gone and Twitter is replacing it as the default avatar for new users. This is the first time since 2010 that the company is changing the default avatar.
As to why the change, Twitter has said that multiple reasons have led to this and one being that it has ‘noticed patterns of behavior with accounts that are created only to harass others — often they don’t take the time to personalize their accounts.’ With this, the company says that users have come to associate the default egg avatar with negative behaviour and this means that most new users are discriminated against for no reason.
Besides the negative association, Twitter also says that it had to change the default avatar since it refreshed its brand last year. With a refreshed brand, it was only right for the company to change one of the things people see often when using Twitter on a daily basis.
Twitter has also said that some users continue using the default avatar because it is cute. This was not the company’s intention and to make sure users understand that this avatar is designed to be temporary, the company has decided to go with a gray tone like the one below.
With this new default photo, the company hopes that people who sign up to use its services will end up uploading and not use the default avatar longer than expected.
Also Read: Usernames No Longer Part Of Twitter’s 140 Character Limit