Twitter has unveiled a redesign for user profiles and it looks a lot like Facebook.
The social network said in a blog post, “Moment by moment, your Twitter profile shows the world who you are. Starting today, it will be even easier (and, we think, more fun) to express yourself through a new and improved Web profile.”
The profile redesign is rolling out to a select number of tweeters from today, including Michelle Obama, and has already drawn attention for its similarity to Facebook. As expected, it has the main picture and bio shifted to the left of the page with more space dedicated to the header photo, which now sits across the top of the screen.
“The new Web profile lets you use a larger profile photo, customize your header, show off your best tweets, and more,” Twitter explained.
With the redesign come some new features. These include: Best Tweets – which will see popular tweets made more prominent; Pinned Tweet – allowing for updates to be pinned to the top of a profile; and Filtered Tweets – enabling users to choose which timeline to view when checking out other users’ profiles.
While the updated profile design is only available to a select number of users at present, Twitter said it will be made available for all in the coming weeks. It has yet to announce whether it will also apply the design to its mobile apps.
News of Twitter’s profile redesign comes just hours after the firm revealed that it acquired Android lock screen application Cover to challenge Facebook Home.
For those who haven’t heard of Cover, the start-up – which launched in beta in October – describes the app as being able to learn “when and where you use different apps and puts them on your lockscreen for easy access”.
“Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android. They share our vision that smartphones can be a lot smarter – more useful and more contextual – and together we’re going to make that happen,” said Cover in a blog post.
The purchase sees Twitter looking to make more of a push in the mobile market.
This article was originally published on the Inquirer.