Twitter changed its font, and there might be a very good reason for it

Twitter has a slightly different font on the web.

I would not have noticed it; the difference is quite small compared to the old (The Verge(Opens in a new window) was the first to report the change). Indeed, as pointed out by NiemanLab’s Joshua Benton(Opens in a new window), the font itself has not changed; It’s still called Twitter’s proprietary font chirping(Opens in a new window)but now it uses OpenType stylistic sets to make it easier to distinguish between characters that are usually very similar, such as B. the capital I and the small L as well as the zero (which now has a diagonal line across it) and o.

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These changes are only visible in Twitter handles, where they’re arguably most useful, as they make it easier to tell real accounts from fake ones. Remember the endless variants of @e10nmusk asking you to buy cryptocurrency? Now these scammers are easier to spot.

Strangely, the change isn’t yet visible on mobile (see example below), although we assume it’s only a matter of time.

Above: Web version of Twitter with the new font. Below: Twitter on iPhone. Notice the slashed “0” in “0xPolygon”.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Twitter

This isn’t the first time Twitter has made changes to the font it uses. replaced chirping Segoe UI(Opens in a new window) in January 2021, and the company has used a number of different fonts(Opens in a new window) throughout its history.

However, this recent font change gives hope that someone at Twitter is genuinely trying to reduce spam and impersonation on the platform, as Elon Musk promised before he took office.