May X be trying to convey again GIF profile pictures within the app?
Twitter, now X, did as soon as provide this as an choice (kind of), and a few customers do nonetheless have transferring profile pictures in consequence. However the capability to really add a GIF as your X avatar has been unavailable, in any type, for greater than a decade.
However that may very well be about to alter.
In accordance with a brand new submit from X engineer Andrea Conway, the X staff is at the least discussing the choice of bringing again animated profile pictures.
gif profile pics (they’d be non-obligatory obvs)
— Andrea Conway (@ehikian) November 1, 2023
It’s solely a ballot for now, however Conway has shared varied insights on coming X options over the past 12 months, and all of them have ended up being rolled out at some stage. So it does appear possible that that is on the product staff’s radar, although some customers are fairly against the choice.
To make clear, X/Twitter has by no means formally enabled customers to add GIFs for his or her profile picture, however there was, at one stage, a workaround that enabled customers to add a GIF inside sure dimensions that might then work as an animated avatar in-stream.
Former Twitter chief Dick Costolo apparently oversaw the closure of this loophole again in 2012, making it unimaginable to add GIFs, however customers that had already achieved so had been in a position to hold them. Which is why, now and again, you come throughout an animated profile picture, though you may’t really add one your self.
Some customers declare that it’s too distracting, whereas it could additionally pose issues for display screen readers and different accessibility instruments. However there may very well be a variation of this the place customers can add an animation to their profile picture, when a customer hovers over the image possibly, or faucets by means of to their profile particularly.
Or it may go full LinkedIn, and add video intros on profiles (which LinkedIn eliminated as an choice earlier this year)
I imply, Elon is eager to tackle LinkedIn within the job stakes, so possibly?
It looks as if a minor consideration, but it surely may have an effect, and it may very well be coming someday quickly.
Additionally price noting, app researcher Jane Manchun Wong famous that X was working on re-adding GIFs as a profile image option in December last year. So it has been at the least into account for a while.
