Twitter is testing a new look that will make better use of space on iPhone

Twitter
Twitter (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Twitter is testing a change that will see tweets make better use of the horizontal space on iPhones.
  • The new look will see tweet content appear below a user's avatar instead of beside it.

Twitter is testing a new look that will make better use of horizontal space on your iPhone. The change will see tweet content appear beneath the tweeter's name and avatar, rather than beside it as we're used to.

The change isn't widespread yet and there is no indication when it will be, but researcher Jane Munchun Wong was able to get a screenshot of the new interface in action, posting it to Twitter.

Notably, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey replied to the tweet, saying that it is "much better" than the previous look.

While iPhones are generally larger than they have ever been, they're much taller than they are wide. That means that horizontal space is at a premium while vertical space is not. That's what makes this move make so much sense — even if the resulting tweets immediately look like something that would be more at home in Instagram. Especially when an image is shared like it was in Wong's example.

This is a change that will be very welcome, but it still won't make the official Twitter app the best iPhone for tweeters. The lack of a timeline sync is the main reason I can't switch from Tweetbot, despite missing out on some features like polls and whatnot.

Come on Twitter. It's 2021 — it's time our timelines synced across devices.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.