{"id":342312,"date":"2017-05-31T07:08:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T23:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1497252"},"modified":"2017-05-31T07:08:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T23:08:22","slug":"twitter-tests-rounded-buttons-and-thumbnailsbecause-thats-the-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/twitter-tests-rounded-buttons-and-thumbnailsbecause-thats-the-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter tests rounded buttons and thumbnails\u2026because that\u2019s the problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Twitter is testing a new interface for its mobile applications on iOS and Android, which involves rounded profile images, buttons and other features. It\u2019s unclear what advantage going \u201cround\u201d would bring, as the style\u2019s adoption among app makers and designers tends to be more of a trend that ebbs and flows over time, rather than a format that\u2019s proven to have a significant advantage over the classic and familiar\u00a0<\/a>square\/rectangular style.<\/p>\n

One argument for introducing rounded icons could be that it makes it easier to differentiate an app\u2019s users from the content \u2014 like the photos or albums being posted to the service, for example. (You can see an example of this here on Quora<\/a> where a Facebook designer showed how this worked in Instagram\u2019s activity feed to differentiate the people from\u00a0the photos they had liked.)<\/p>\n

However, for a service like Twitter that\u2019s constantly tweaking its user interface and even how its core feature set functions \u2014 like what counts toward the 140 characters<\/a> or how replies work<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 messing around with rounded thumbnails and buttons seems like a bit of a time-waster.<\/p>\n

After all, Twitter\u2019s\u00a0product issues over the years have stemmed from trying to take a service that ultimately appealed to the more tech-savvy individuals and trying to make it something that also works for\u00a0the everyday, mainstream user.<\/p>\n

Twitter\u2019s earliest adopters and power users have reveled\u00a0in its more obtuse features, like the app\u2019s\u00a0once purely reverse-chronological feed, its built-in constraints on character count that force brevity and its \u201csecret club\u201d nature where users hacked their own way of communicating on top of Twitter\u2019s\u00a0platform \u2014 whether that was by writing \u201cRT\u201d to kick of retweets, putting a period (\u201c.\u201d) before replies to make them more visible, or numbering tweets to share longer thoughts as \u201ctweetstorms,\u201d for example.<\/p>\n

By now, one would think Twitter would know that its\u00a0app won\u2019t ultimately be more or less usable because of how its profile icons look, or whether the tweet button is round or rectangular.<\/p>\n

It will be usable if it respects its user base by addressing spam and harassment<\/a> head-on. It will be adopted if it offers an easy way to both watch and participate in the kind of online conversations you can\u2019t\u00a0have\u00a0on other social platforms, like Facebook. And it can attract more users<\/a> if it serves as the exclusive home to content you can\u2019t get elsewhere. (Twitter hopes this will be its live-streamed<\/a> videos, but, in reality, it\u2019s\u00a0Trump\u2019s tweets that drove its user numbers up<\/a> in recent days.)<\/p>\n

But nevertheless, Twitter likes to test things, so bring on all the\u00a0rounded stuff, I guess?<\/p>\n

Android Police first spotted Twitter\u2019s new look last week<\/a>, when it was then available in the Android alpha application. We\u2019ve also heard from iOS beta testers that they have the new look, as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image credit: above, Android Police<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Specifically, the thumbnail images are rounded both on user profiles and next to tweets, and other buttons are rounded, too, like the \u201cEdit Profile\u201d button and the \u201cTweet\u201d button in the compose screen. The search boxes and buttons also have a rounded theme.<\/p>\n

Other changes may also be in the works, too, like the use of new\u00a0fonts.<\/p>\n

Whether or not any of these changes make their way to the wider public remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Twitter declined to officially comment on the test, but we understand from those familiar with the experiment that it\u2019s now running on both iOS and Android with the intention of determining whether the update makes Twitter easier to use.<\/p>\n

\u00af_(\u30c4)_\/\u00af<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Twitter is testing a new interface for its mobile applications on iOS and Android, which involves rounded profile images, buttons and other features. It’s unclear what advantage going “round” would bring. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-342312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}