Twitter stripped background images from user home and notification pages on Monday and the update wasn’t a welcome one.
Of course, nothing whips social media into a frenzy like communal venting over platform updates and an overinflated sense of entitlement. One hundred forty-character complaints ranged from nostalgia for custom wallpaper and regrets over the new look — a “grey, empty expanse of nothingness” — to threats that users are moving to Canada.
Previously, you could design your own background image or customize the color scheme of your Twitter home page. The newly imposed background is solid white, prompting the hashtag #blindingwhite among haters.
However, there is some relief. Personalized backgrounds will still appear around individual tweets, on list pages and collection pages.
“We’re removing background images from the home and notifications timelines on web for all users,” a Twitter spokesperson told TheWrap. “Now, background images are only available where logged-in users will see them publicly (Tweet pages, list pages and collections pages). You can find help center content about customizing your design and where it’s visible on Twitter here.”
Here are some of the best reactions Twitter users had to being stripped of their individuality:
I fixed my Twitter background image issue everybody. pic.twitter.com/gPUDYSqKfh
— Aaron Durand (@everydaydude) July 21, 2015
Hey, Twitter. The #blindingwhite background is clean, boring, and not what I chose. Aside from that, it's brilliant.
— Harry Shearer (@theharryshearer) July 21, 2015
wow twitter, takin the background of my page? that’s it i’m movin to canada — lauren yap (@itslaurenyap) July 21, 2015
Twitter so boring now. RIP background images — Dorsey Shaw (@dorseyshaw) July 21, 2015
RIP my twitter background. now just a grey, empty expanse of nothingness. pic.twitter.com/joujbp6NBS — Owen Williams (@ow) July 21, 2015
It’s too bad, Harper Lee was going to publish her 3rd novel exclusively as a Twitter background. Oh well. — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 21, 2015
Twitter’s new all-white background is the strangest Donald Trump campaign strategy yet. — Jenna Mullins (@JBomb11) July 20, 2015
Twitter has erased my pinstripe background wallpaper, which I’ve had since 2009. 🙁 — Heidi N Moore (@moorehn) July 20, 2015
So Twitter has decided to change all the profiles to a white background, the same thing Myspace did right before they went down in flames!
— DW SIN (@DW_Sin_) July 20, 2015
Twitter isn’t showing my rainbow background, and instead it’s just grey. It’s make me very depressed. I NEED RAINBOWS IN MY LIFE TWITTER — Aureylian (@aureylian) July 21, 2015