By Pascal OparadaSocial Media/Tech Reporter
Twitter’s website is getting a major makeover.
The company has been testing a new version of its desktop website since the beginning of this year and Monday, the final product is rolling out to the public.
The upgraded version simplifies navigation that directs you to all of Twitter’s key sections, including notifications, Direct Message, Explore, Bookmarks, lists and more.
It also features an expanded, more inbox-like Direct Messages screen where you can view and respond to conversations in one place; plus easy profile switching, support for more themes, advanced search, and other features.
He popular dark modes, Dim and the very black Lights Out mode, are now supported along with more ways to personalize Twitter through different themes and colour options.
But the most noticeable change is the organization and layout of the Twitter home screen itself.
The update is designed to make it easier to move around Twitter.
Before, you’d have to click on your Profile icon to access features like Lists, Themes, Settings, and other options.
Meanwhile, getting to Moments was available both in this Profile drop down menu and in the main Twitter navigation at the top of the screen, next to Notifications and Messages.
Now, Moments is being downgraded to the “More” menu in the redesign and Explore instead gets the top billing.
As on mobile, Explore will direct users to more live videos and personalized local moments, says Twitter.
This is also where you’ll find Top Trends, while Personalized Trends will be featured on the right-hand sidebar on the home screen. (See above).
In addition, Twitter finally brought the over a year old Bookmarks feature to the desktop’s main navigation.With the update, the new navigation menu includes: Home, Explore, Notifications, Messages, Bookmarks, Lists, Profile, and then More — the latter, a menu where you’ll find things like Moments, Twitter’s ad tools, Settings, and other features.
The new Compose feature has been slightly tweaked as well, with options to include a photo, GIF, poll or emoji now all in the bottom left, with the emoji button now swapping in for the location button, following Twitter’s decision to make sharing precise location less of a priority, given its lack of use.
Though the new home screen is arguably better organized, the navigation text itself and the amount of screen real estate it takes up is overly large.
This detracts somewhat from the main content because your eye is naturally drawn to the oversize navigation labels at first, not the posts flowing in the timeline.
This can also be a jarring change to get used to for longtime Twitter.com users.
