Twitter has a slightly different font on the web.
I wouldn’t have noticed; the difference is quite small compared to the old one (The edge(Opens in a new window) was the first to report the change). In fact, as pointed out by NiemanLab’s Joshua Benton(Opens in a new window), the font itself has not changed; it’s always Twitter’s own font called To babble(Opens in a new window)but it now uses OpenType stylistic sets to help distinguish between typically very similar characters, such as uppercase I and lowercase L, and zero (which is now topped with a diagonal line) and o.
The tweet may have been deleted
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These changes are only visible in Twitter IDs, which is arguably where they’re most useful, as they make it easier to tell real from fake accounts. Remember the endless variations of @e10nmusk tricking you into buying cryptocurrency? Now these scammers will be easier to spot.
Curiously, the change is not yet visible on mobile (see example below), although we believe it is only a matter of time.
Top: Web version of Twitter with the new font. Bottom: Twitter on the iPhone. Notice the crossed out ‘0’ in ‘0xPolygon’
This isn’t the first time Twitter has changed the font it uses. Chirp replaced Segoe UI(Opens in a new window) in January 2021, and the company used a number of different fonts(Opens in a new window) throughout its history.
However, this latest policy change gives hope that someone on Twitter is really trying to reduce spam and impersonation on the platform, as Elon Musk promised before taking over.
