You might have logged into Twitter and already seen the changes, or perhaps you’ve heard it mentioned in your social feeds as the “Facebooking” of Twitter.

Twitter announced this week that it will be changing the layout of your profile, making noticeable alterations to how you can present yourself. Popular posts will have a bigger font, and you can choose which posts to pin to the top of your feed.

In the language surrounding the launch, Twitter invites you to “make this space yours” and “express yourself”, suggesting that this new focus on a simpler UX wants users to get comfortable and share more, and make the Twitter experience a richer one.

For regular users, Twitter’s previous flat interface required regular interaction for the feed to be meaningful. The “personalities” of individuals on Twitter is only really apparent through continued post reading and interaction, and becoming familiar with how other users choose to communicate on the channel. For infrequent users, I think the momentum required to use Twitter efficiently could seem intimidating.

By providing a new layout where users may naturally spend more time, this “Facebook-approach” could be a winner for Twitter.

The new layout looks like it will give social marketing managers some added ability to highlight their brand, and allow for more natural, native messaging. Michelle Obama’s profile looks very colorful and attractive with the new layout.

List of included new features:

Large profile photo

Header photo spanning the top of the page

Larger popular Tweets

A “pinnable” Tweet option at the top of the page

Different sidebar layouts

Different “follower” and “following” layouts

Different filtering options, including just posts with photos/videos

When is it available?

Rollout has begun, and Twitter says that everyone will have the new layout in the upcoming weeks.

Are you looking forward to trying the new layout? When your new profile is set up, please send us a tweet and include a #newlayout hashtag, so we can check it out and see how it looks!