X Could Be Trying To Deliver Again GIF Profile Pictures

Might X be seeking to deliver again GIF profile photographs 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 photographs consequently. However the capability to truly add a GIF as your X avatar has been unavailable, in any kind, for greater than a decade.

However that might be about to alter.

In accordance with a brand new put up from X engineer Andrea Conway, the X staff is at the least discussing the choice of bringing again animated profile photographs.

It’s solely a ballot for now, however Conway has shared varied insights on coming X options during the last yr, and all of them have ended up being rolled out at some stage. So it does appear seemingly 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 will 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 unattainable to add GIFs, however customers that had already carried out so have been capable of maintain them. Which is why, now and again, you come throughout an animated profile picture, regardless that you possibly can’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 might 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 via to their profile particularly.

Or it might 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, however it might have an effect, and it might be coming someday quickly. 

Additionally value 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.