Twitter announced today that the company is changing the default avatar for new accounts from the infamous multicolored eggs to a new default profile photo that depicted a gray, genderless image of a person with a vaguely gumdrop-shaped head. 
 
 The change from the colorful eggs to the blander silhouette is an intentional one by Twitter, which noted that the new image is specifically meant to be less interesting and feel more like a placeholder, in an effort to encourage users to customize their profiles to a more unique image. 
 
 As detailed on the announcement post, the company went through numerous iterations to reach a final result that met the goals of an image that was “generic, universal, serious, unbranded, temporary, and inclusive.” Rejected results include a variety of other vague head shapes, a landscape, and a design that consisted solely of gray stripes. 
 
 Additionally, Twitter’s blog does acknowledge that in recent years, the anonymous Twitter egg has become associated with abusive and harassing behavior on the social network. And while eliminating the egg is at least recognizing that there is problem, changing the default image just puts a difference face on the issues of abuse, as opposed to actually serving as a concrete step in solving those problems. (Although in fairness, the company has also recently began to roll out more tools to help keep newly created accounts out of users timelines.) 
 
 We’ve reached out to Twitter for additional details on the change, and will continue to update this post with any new information. ||||| The thinking behind Twitter's replacement for the troll-favorite egg profile photo is a vaguely human placeholder that is unpleasant enough to encourage people to replace it with a custom icon. 
 
 We noticed that some people kept the egg default profile photo because they thought it was fun and cute, but we want people to use this space to show us who they are! The new default image feels more like an empty state or placeholder, and we hope it encourages people to upload images that express themselves. 
 
 We’ve noticed patterns of behavior with accounts that are created only to harass others – often they don’t take the time to personalize their accounts. This has created an association between the default egg profile photo and negative behavior, which isn’t fair to people who are still new to Twitter and haven’t yet personalized their profile photo.
– The ubiquitous Twitter egg has finally hatched, revealing a ... "vaguely human placeholder," as Boing Boing calls it. On Friday, Twitter replaced its eggs, which have served as the default photos for users of the social media site for seven years, with what the Verge has dubbed "gumdrop head." Twitter says the change was done in part to encourage people who haven't uploaded a user photo to do so. Apparently, the egg was so "fun and cute" that people were keeping it permanently. The site also noticed that people who only use Twitter to harass others were keeping the egg, creating an "association" between the egg and bad behavior. The Verge gives Twitter credit for at least recognizing it has a problem with abuse on the platform, though changing the default image from an egg to a gray person-ish thing doesn't really address the meat of the issue. The change has also been unpopular with Twitter users. "i cant [sic] believe they thought the egg was the problem. lmao," a Gizmodo writer tweets. "Twitter has changed all egg avatars to silhouettes of people, ensuring you blame the human race for the abuse rather than innocent birds," a BuzzFeed editor adds. Or as another Twitter user sums it up: "USERS: Nazis are threatening to put me in a gas chamber. TWITTER: heard you loud and clear, no more egg pictures."