Twitter to roll out Facebook-like design update

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9 (UPI) -- Twitter will begin rolling out its new profile page design in the coming weeks, and the redesign already appears on certain celebrity pages.

The redesign, which makes a user's profile page look very similar to Facebook's design, will come with a larger profile picture and header image, and will showcase the user's most popular tweets. Users can also pin their favorite tweets to their profile page. Twitter's mainstay, its main feed that lists new tweets in chronological order, will remain unchanged.

The redesign is immediately available to new users and has been applied to certain celebrity profiles, such as first lady Michele Obama (@flotus), movie stars Zac Efron (@zacefron) and Channing Tatutm (@channingtatum) and star of the hit TV show Scandal, Kerry Washington (@kerrywashington).

The update will only apply to the desktop version of the service and not to smartphone or tablet apps, which are the most popular ways the service is used.

Another new feature is a filter that visitors to a profile page can use to view tweets: original tweets, tweets plus replies to others, and tweets with photos or videos.

The redesign is another attempt by the social media company to increase its user growth, which has been sluggish. In February, the company said it had 241 million average monthly users in the fourth quarter, a slight increase from the previous quarter.

[Twitter] [The New York Times]