Twitter has unveiled new changes designed to enhance your microblogging experience.
Revealed in a two-part tweet posted Wednesday, Twitter announced an updated web font intended to improve "speed and readability," more color options on user profiles, and new buttons on profile pages to send tweets or direct messages to another user.
We’ve made some updates to http://t.co/eNvqKTup1d. One is an updated web font for speed and readability. (1/2)— Twitter (@twitter) September 3, 2014
More http://t.co/eNvqKTup1d updates: Choose from new profile colors; now it’s easier to Tweet/message from an account's profile page. 2/2— Twitter (@twitter) September 3, 2014
[seealso slug="twitter-redesign-facebook-google"]
This web font switch, back to a sans-serif system default font (Arial on Windows, Helvetica Neue on OS X and Droid Sans on Android), is a backtrack from the company's decision a few months ago to use Gotham Narrow, a change that was met with mixed reactions at the time.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the specifics of the changes, but some users are already voicing their displeasure, with most of their ire directed at the new font.
Twitter, change the font back. its horrible— Mark Keeble (@MarkKeeble_) September 3, 2014
Did @twitter just change its web font back to its pre-Gotham Narrow one? #importantissues #typegeek— Jeff Tabaco (@jefftabaco) September 3, 2014
the font on twitter gets uglier and uglier every day— becca // pls aaron (@whitesidesmcvey) September 3, 2014
Eew what's up w twitter's new font— Camille Ortiz (@camillebiancaoh) September 3, 2014
The new buttons on profile pages will make it easier to communicate with other users quickly. For example, if you click "Tweet to" while looking at Mashable's Twitter profile, it opens a new tweet with "@mashable" already at the beginning. The "Message" button sets up a direct message to the account.
It wasn't immediately clear what the new profile color options were.
This latest change follows a design tweak to Twitter's sign-up page last week, which took "months of effort," according to Twitter product manager Christian Oestlien.
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