Notice Twitter's overhauled website lately? This is going to be the default moving forward for all users, with no option to revert to the previous design.
The company started testing this new version at the beginning of the year, and now the final product is ready for mass rollout. The upgraded experience fronts a large left-hand sidebar that contains all of Twitter's most important functions and areas, including Notifications, Direct Messages, Mentions, Explore, and more.
Users will also find an expanded, a more inbox-like approach to Direct Messages where users can view and respond to conversations from the same place. Users with multiple accounts should be much more pleased with this version as it features easier switching between profiles. There's also support for more themes, advanced search, and other features.
Dark Mode Is Here
That means Dark Mode is finally available as an option, and they come in Dim and Lights Out flavors, the latter being the truly "dark" variant. But perhaps the most crucial change of all is how things work thanks to the new layout, which excises clutter to make way for a cleaner, more streamlined look.
Homescreen Layout
Which is all to say the new site is designed to help users more easily navigate Twitter and perform different functions. Before, users had to click on their profile icon to access certain features, including Lists, Themes, Settings, and more. This time, these are more readily accessible.
Moments gets a new location in this upgrade — to the "More" menu. Instead, Explore has been bumped to where it can be more prominently noticed. Explore, for the uninitiated, will direct users to live videos, personalized local moments, Top Trends, and other stuff.
Woah, what’s this? A shiny new https://t.co/q4wnE46fGs for desktop? Yup. IT’S HERE. pic.twitter.com/8y4TMzqBGa — Twitter (@Twitter) July 15, 2019
Compose
Twitter also updated the Compose screen, albeit just slightly. Now, options to include a photo, GIF, poll, or emoji are located in the bottom left.
While these are great changes, TechCrunch notes that the new design takes up a rather huge amount of space compared to the previous look; some of the labels are large enough to potentially distract users away from the main event: tweets. Thankfully, this is no big deal — just make the webpage smaller. Doing so would hide the labels and show just the icons.
Have you been toying with Twitter's new look? How the experience so far? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
