Twitter, now X, did as soon as provide this as an choice (form of), and a few customers do nonetheless have shifting profile photos in consequence. However the capability to truly 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 vary.

In keeping with a brand new publish from X engineer Andrea Conway, the X crew is not less than discussing the choice of bringing again animated profile photos.

It’s solely a ballot for now, however Conway has shared numerous insights on coming X options during the last 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 crew’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 may 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 finished so have been in a position to preserve them. Which is why, every so often, you come throughout an animated profile picture, although you’ll be able to’t truly add one your self.

Some customers declare that it’s too distracting, whereas it might 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 perhaps, or faucets by way of to their profile particularly.

Or it might go full LinkedIn, and add video intros on profiles (which LinkedIn eliminated as an choice earlier this 12 months)

I imply, Elon is eager to tackle LinkedIn within the job stakes, so perhaps?

It looks as if a minor consideration, but it surely might have an effect, and it may very well be coming someday quickly. 

Additionally value noting, app researcher Jane Manchun Wong famous that X was engaged on re-adding GIFs as a profile picture choice in December final 12 months. So it has been not less than into consideration for a while.