Twitter said it is “rethinking” the egg icon on its default profile picture for a blobby silhouette of a person’s head and shoulders according to a statement from the micro-blogging site.
Users who have created accounts on the social media platform started out with their default profile photo displayed as an egg. According to Twitter in a statement, it was a playful way to reference how eggs hatch into birds that send all the tweets on the social platform.
The new profile picture depicts a gray, genderless image of a person with a vaguely gumdrop-shaped head.
There are couple of reasons Twitter is making the change.
“Last year, we refreshed our brand, with a new look and feel highlighting the diversity and expressiveness of the people around the world who make up the Twitter community, in all its colour and vibrancy. As part of our work to bring these ideas into the product, we realised it was time to change the default profile photo, to help prompt more self-expression,” Twitter said.
Users refusing to change the icon to a real profile photo because they “thought it was fun and cute” was another reason the change came. With the new default image looking more like a placeholder, it is hoped that people will be encouraged to upload their images on the site.
The third reason – and perhaps the most important, is the pattern of behaviour with accounts that harass and abuse people on the social network.
“This has created an association between the default egg profile photo and negative behaviour, which is not fair to people who are still new to Twitter and have not yet personalized their profile photo,” Twitter said.
