I’ve never been a fan of animated avatars on any service, let alone Twitter. I am an avid user of the web client, and I cannot stand seeing things flash before my eyes along with 140 characters, but maybe I’m just a jerk.
Twitter apparently didn’t like them either, and according to BuzzFeed, you can no longer use an animated GIF as an avatar on the service. RIP, weird flashing things.
This is what BuzzFeed shared on the matter:
My avatar still moves. New uploads, however, do not. The animated GIF avatar isn’t quite dead, but it appears to have been sentenced to death.
This was a long time coming. Animated GIFs don’t display in most Twitter apps, including the official clients for iPhone, Android, and Mac OS. They do display in Tweetdeck and on Twitter’s website, but they’ve been officially unsupported for years, according to Twitter’s support pages.
Twitter users are losing their damn minds:
Here’s what I’d like to imagine Twitter’s statement would look like, but clearly wasn’t:
